Ji Rang stayed up almost all night.
He could not imagine how desperate such a soft little girl had to be, that she would choose to commit suicide to end her life in order to end her suffering. Even more unacceptable, her optimism all the time was actually an illusion.
How did she emerge from the shadow of suicide, how did she swallow the unbearable pain that ordinary people couldn't alone, and was finally able to smile softly at the world?
The thought of this broke his heart.
It wasn't until early morning when the sky was foggy and light that he fell into a light sleep. But it didn't last long. Qi Ying was to board a plane at 12 noon. Before leaving, she had to go back to her home to take a look. He only got up after squinting for more than an hour, his eyes flushed with sleep and thus a bit red.
After checking out, wearing a hat, he sat on the sofa in the lobby waiting for her.
It didn't take long for Yu Cheng to bring Qi Ying down.
She did not look unusual, except that her eyes were a little red. When Yu Cheng talked to her, she raised her head and responded obediently, without showing any of the hurt in her heart.
Ji Rang was heartbroken to death.
He put on his hat and walked beside her across the road.
They were going to have a look at the old home of Qi Ying. It was not far, down a straight road, and it took no more than ten minutes to get there.
As it was the spring, the pink cherry blossoms on both sides of the street were blooming, clusters crowded on the branches. His tall and thin figure shuttled among the pink double-flowered cherry blossoms, like an unrelated passerby, with his hands in his pockets, strolling in the courtyard, but no matter when she tilted her head, she would be able to see him.
Qi Ying felt so relieved.
Her family lived in an old community, and the security guard at the door was reading a newspaper wearing a pair of reading glasses. He also knew Qi Ying and stood up a little excited when he saw her: "Isn't this Yingying? I haven't seen you for a long time."
She politely greeted him as Grandpa Security. The Qi family's accident was not spread out, and it was only said that they had died in the line of duty, and even the people in the community thought they had moved away.
Yu Cheng chatted with the security guard and led Qi Ying in.
She walked a few steps and looked back. Ji Rang was standing under a street lamp across the street, leaning on the telephone pole with his hands crossed, his hat down to his eyelids, and his face too far away, but she knew that he was watching her.
She waved at him secretly.
Sure enough, he also raised his hand and waved.
She felt so happy, and even the tingling sensation that came from returning home was alleviated a lot.
There was a lot of dust in the house, and the furniture was covered with dust-proof white cloth. Yu Cheng was choking and coughing. She covered her nose and opened the window to cross-ventilate. She walked back to her old bedroom and took a look.
It was strange, it was the first time, but she was familiar with every corner. She opened the suitcase and packed some small things that she didn't have time to pack when she left in a hurry last year.
She packed her most favorite pen, her favorite strawberry hairpin, a diary full of young girls' thoughts, a stuffed bear that has accompanied her for many years, and a family portrait.
She squatted on the ground and looked at the family portrait.
It was taken in Ocean Park. Behind them was the Mermaid Pavilion, and you could see a golden mermaid in the water. All three of them were laughing happily.
After a long time, she whispered and said hesitantly: "Dad…Mom…"
She still didn't understand where the sense of familiarity and pain came from, but yesterday after crying and revealing her heart in front of Ji Rang, she found that this body was not as violently repelling things about her parents as before.
Yu Cheng shouted outside: "Yingying, let's go, we won't be able to catch the plane anymore."
She rubbed her eyes, put the photo in her suitcase, and answered obediently: "Okay."
When they left the community, Ji Rang was still standing in the same position. When Yu Cheng waved the taxi over and was waiting for it, he looked around at random and muttered to himself: "Did I see this person in the cemetery yesterday? It's impossible, isn't it such a coincidence?"
He has always been a careless man, he didn't think much about it, and he got in the taxi and left as soon as the taxi arrived.
Ji Rang waited for them to leave before calling a taxi to the airport.
He said he would stay with her, so he really stayed with her all the way, waiting for her to pass the security check before sending her a message: See you in Haicheng.
Qi Ying returned an obedient "Ok".
He did not board the plane.
He changed his itinerary to the evening, and then turned back to the places where he visited with Qi Ying last night.
He was alone again, walked the way she had walked, ate at her favorite restaurant, and finally went to her school. Yan Qi was conducting class, and the Security Department would definitely not let him in, but it didn't trouble him.
He could jump over two of Yan Qi's old wall at once, and it was not a joke.
He jumped into the school and wandered around at random, where he actually saw her picture in the school's faded bulletin board.
She was rated as an outstanding student in the first semester of high school. The profile under the photo said that she was admitted to Yancheng No. 7 Middle School with the fourth rank in the city entrance examination.
The photo had faded a lot, but it's not difficult to see the cute smile on her face.
He took out his phone and took a picture of it.
As soon as the picture was clicked, he heard someone screaming from behind: "Which class are you in? Walking outside during class hours without wearing a school uniform?"
Ji Rang was about to run, and the student who stood behind the bulletin board posting the campus newspaper came out and they stared at each other.
Fu Nanxun thought he was dreaming.
He stared at the indifferent young man in front of him dumbfounded, and for a long time he shouted in shock: "Ji Rang?!"
The security guard behind him had approached and patted Ji Rang on the shoulder, "Which class are you in?"
Fu Nanxun walked out from behind the bulletin board, holding the campus newspaper and glue in his hand, and smiled and said to the security guard: "He is a freshman in our class and has not received the uniform for the time being. We are changing this issue of the campus newspaper."
The security guard naturally knew the number one in this grade, which was loved by the teachers and students of the whole school, and he nodded and left without doubt.
Fu Nanxun put away his smile and looked at him inexplicably: "You… why are you here?"
He glanced at the picture of Qi Ying in the bulletin board, paused for a moment, and yelled in disbelief: "You didn't come all the way to steal the photo, right?"
Ji Rang: "…"
What's wrong with these first rankers?
Twenty minutes later, Ji Rang and Fu Nanxun sat in the stands of the school playground alone with a bottle of Coke.
The temperature in Haicheng had risen to the point where you could wear spring clothes, but the wind in Yancheng was still chilly, and there is a class on the playground that has its gym period, so they were running and jumping around, very energetic.
"So, you made a special trip to accompany her back to worship? Then she's gone, why didn't you leave? You even came over the wall to our school?"
Fu Nanxun thought it was incredible.
During the week when he was an exchange student in Haicheng, every meeting he had with Ji Rang was not friendly. He didn't like these bad boys who were always fighting. In Class 2, he heard about Ji Rang's bad rumors on and off, and he didn't have a good impression of him.
But Qi Ying liked him.
She liked him very obviously.
The person that the little girl would like should not be a hopelessly bad person.
It's just that he didn't expect that one day he would sit in the stands of his school with this bad boy and drink Coke.
This is magical.
The boy next to him took in a cold breath, and his voice was indifferent: "I wanted to come and see where she lived."
"You…" Fu Nanxun organized his words: "It's pretty romantic."
Ji Rang played with the Coke bottle in his hand. After a long time, he hesitated and asked, "What was she like before?"
"What was she like?" Fu Nanxun leaned back and put his arm on the arm of the chair. He thought for a while: "It's still the same as she is now. Very good, smiles at everyone. If she is wronged, she won't complain, and only secretly wipe her tears."
When he thought of it, his voice was smiling: "When we first entered school, everyone was not familiar with each other. The seats in our class were arranged according to the results of the high school entrance examination. I was the first in the city, and she was the fourth in the city, because the second and the third were in a different class and she was in the same class, we were asked to sit together, so I became table mates with her."
"At that time, everyone was unfamiliar. She was soft-tempered, laughed with everyone, and she was very beautiful. She was confessed to within two days of coming to class. She rejected the boy, but the boy started harassing her. When she came to school, he stopped her. She asked me, Fu Nanxun, what should I do? I said, if you tell your dad, and let your dad wear a police uniform to pick you up and down, he will definitely not dare."
"Guess what she said? She said, no, if my dad knew he would kill him. He just confessed to me and must be very sad to be rejected by me. How miserable it would be to be beaten again."
Ji Rang couldn't help but laugh.
Fu Nanxun also laughed and sighed: "At that time, I was thinking, how could there be such a cute little girl in this world."
When the wind passed, the smiles of the two teenagers were blown away.
After the laugh, there was another moment of silence.
For a long time, Fu Nanxun said in a low voice, "I didn't know what she suffered. She disappeared suddenly and didn't even say goodbye. I hated her for a while. I thought to myself, this is nothing, although she doesn't like me, but at any rate, we were always at the same table. Was she so unfeeling?"
He didn't know what she had experienced until he went to Haicheng.
He was uncomfortable just listening to other people's reports, and imagined if these things happened to him, would he be able to survive.
"The answer is no, I can't do it. I certainly can't be like her, still being strong and gentle towards life. So, when I saw you, I was actually very grateful." He patted Ji Rang on the shoulder. "Your appearance should have given her a lot of strength."
Ji Rang shrugged and shook his hand off: "You don't need to be grateful; it has nothing to do with you."
Fu Nanxun: "…"
Is this person soaked in a jar of vinegar?
However, the first ranker felt that it was a big measure. He didn't care about such bad boys. He checked his watch and said, "I have to go back to class. When are you leaving? I'll treat you to dinner after school."
He glanced at Ji Rang's indifferent expression and choked: "Although I don't want to see you very much, since you are in Yancheng, I still want to do my best as a host."
Ji Rang said: "No, I don't want to recall the scene of eating with you when I recall her hometown in the future."
Fu Nanxun: "???"
Damn, is it still too late to report to the Security Department to catch him?
The first ranker was almost turned into a pufferfish.
Ji Rang got up from his chair, patted the corner of his clothes, turned and left, walked two steps, and waved back: "Thank you for the Coke. Next time you come to Haicheng, I will invite you to dinner."
Fu Nanxun: "No thanks! No need!"
Who doesn't have a temper?
Ji Rang laughed silently, jumped from the stand, put his hat back on, and walked away with the bottle of Coke.
It was early morning when he returned to Haicheng.
He should have taken a taxi home, but after getting in the taxi, the address of Qi Ying's home was reported by him.
The taxi took him to the Haitang Street.
Begonia flowers were already in bloom, and there was a faint fragrance all over the street. Under the illumination of the street lamp, the flower buds were like a cage with a thin layer of halo, there was a fragrance mist, and the moonlight was filled into the cage of flowers.
He didn't know what he was doing here.
At this point in time, the little girl must have fallen asleep.
But he just wanted to come and see her.
Even if he can't see anything, he can't even see her window across the building. But getting close, knowing that she is within a hundred meters, he felt very relieved.
He had quit smoking for a long time, and now he was squatting under the shadow of Begonia flowers, but he could not help but want to smoke.
The door of the 24-hour convenience store not far away was still open. He glanced twice, got up and walked over.
When he came out, he was holding a lollipop.
Can't smoke.
He always hugged her, and she would smell the smoke on his body, which is not good.
He squatted on the side of the road to eat a lollipop.
Occasionally there are passers-by who come back from the night shift and take a detour and hide away after seeing him. He wore a sweater and a hat, looking like a bad guy with bad intentions.
After eating one after another, the candy papers littered the ground.
He stared at the misty night in the distance, for a long time, took out his cell phone and dialed a call.
It took two rings before someone picked it up. The other end was obviously awakened, and he smiled helplessly: "My little master, you torture people like this at midnight?"
"Midnight?" Ji Rang frowned, "isn't it daytime on your side?"
"I'm not in New York." The other side turned over and sat up and yawned: "I'm back home. Didn't your sister tell you?"
"I didn't contact her." Ji Rang squatted a little tired and sat down on the steps. "It just so happens that I have something to ask of you. Which private hospital do you work in? Or opened a clinic yourself? I will come to you tomorrow after school."
"None, I'm on vacation, I'm not taking orders. And I heard you right? Come to me after school? When did you go to class properly?"
"I didn't call you for fun, but business."
He listened to him with a serious tone and laughed at the other end: "I used to have you tied up to see me. If you did come, you would jump out of the window when you came. I didn't count on the running, and I threw my precious Peony Porcelain in surprise which I had finally bought back. Now. Are you going to take the initiative to kneel in front of me?"
Ji Rang was too annoyed: "Why do you talk so much? Just forget it, you are not the only psychiatrist in the country."
Seeing him angry at the other end, he finally stopped teasing him: "See, see, how can I not see the young master, I will send you the address, and you can come here anytime."
Ji Rang responded and said quietly before hanging up the line: "Don't tell Ji Qian."
"Yes, how will you bribe me?"
Ji Rang was about to be angered to death by him: "Chen Fengzhi, do you know that you can't catch up with my sister because of this annoying habit?"
The other end sighed helplessly: "I can't catch her even when I pretend, so just get used to it."
Ji Rang didn't want to talk to him anymore, so he hung up the phone.
The night was already very deep.
After eating the last lollipop, he picked up the candy paper on the floor and stuffed it into his pocket. When he stood up, his leg was a little numb. He looked at the night in the distance, for a long time, and whispered: "Yingying, don't be afraid."
Don't be afraid, I will always be with you.
Be with you, help you come out from the unknown pain, accompany you to drive away those shadows and sorrows, and make you become the really happy little girl once.
I promise.