Chapter Six

  I immediately shot a reproachful glance at Zhou Yueyue.

  Zhou Yue glared at Lin Qiao with an air of authority, ignoring my condemning gaze: "How can you be so rude? I told you not to follow me, but you still keep following. Have you studied law? Do you understand the law? Do you know that this is an invasion of my privacy? The nature of your behavior is very serious!"

  I was stunned, and the young man who loved reading on the bed was also stunned. Lin Qiao expressionlessly let her pass to see Yan Lang.

  Zhou Yueyue looked at us in a daze, then she herself was also stunned for a while. After being stunned, she patted her forehead: "Don't misunderstand, don't misunderstand, he violated my human rights. What I just said is an elliptical sentence, we learned it in our elective course yesterday, whether to omit the subject or the object? He didn't violate me, he really didn't violate me, and I'm still a virgin."

  I said: "Well, I know you're still a virgin. You really understand French and your language skills are good."

  Lin Qiao looked at Yan Lang up and down with his professional eyes for a while, then said casually: "Just had surgery?"

  I said: "Can't you see it yourself with your blind eyes?"

  Lin Qiao said: "Is it just ordinary appendicitis?"

  I said: "Can't you see it yourself with your blind eyes?"

  Lin Qiao raised her head and said: "Yan Song, did you eat gunpowder today?"

  I said, "Can't you see for yourself that your eyes are blind?" After finishing speaking, I felt a bit off and reacted immediately, scolding loudly: "You're the one who's been fed gunpowder! Your whole family has been fed gunpowder! Your ancestors eighteen generations back have all been fed gunpowder!"

  Lin Qiao didn't say another word, turned around and sat down on a chair in front of Yan Lang's bed, hugging her arms and staring at me coldly. I sat down at the head of Yan Lang's bed, looking straight ahead without blinking, ahead was a tightly closed window, outside a song about food and oil problems slowly rose: Oil and rice, I drink you, what what what.

  I think there's no vegetable oil at home, but there's still a can of peanut oil that Zhou Yueyue sent last month. However, using peanut oil to stir-fry is too extravagant, this oil should be saved for Yan Lang to eat later. I'll go buy some vegetable oil tomorrow instead.

  Zhou Yue was excitedly looking at me one moment and then at Lin Qiao the next, occasionally glancing over at the young man on the opposite bed who looked like Guo Fu Cheng and loved to read literature. But the prolonged silence between Lin Qiao and I made it seem like the dramatic development was far off and elusive. After waiting patiently for a while without getting any results, she went over to chat up the young man reading on the opposite bed instead.

  Zhou Yueyue said: "Comrade, are you reading a book?"

  Comrade looked up at her and said: "En."

  "Comrade, what book are you reading?"

  Comrade smiled slightly and waved the document in his hand.

  Zhou Yueyue said: "Oh, it's Ba Jin's book, I also like to read Ba Jin's books, Ba Jin is a great man."

  I stared at Zhou Yue in horror.

  That comrade probably also had some interest piqued and smiled slightly.

  Zhou Yueyue said: "I like his article 'Who is the most lovely person' the most, Comrade Huang Jiguang bravely jumped into the icy cave to save underage children who fell through the ice on a cold winter day, he is really worth our learning."

  The comrade's face turned black instantly.

  "He said other things that I also saw, all written quite well, but in recent years, he hasn't produced any new works, probably because his talent has been exhausted, what a pity."

  I looked at Zhou Yueyue with pity, thinking that she and Comrade had probably reached the end of their fate, with no continuation. But what's terrifying is that she actually wanted to continue, I painfully closed my eyes.

  "He had an early work, I don't know what it was called, but it was written in a very bold style, really with great literary talent. As soon as I read it, I liked him immediately. Let me think...I think it was called 'A Madman's Diary'."

  Comrade was already somewhat fed up and said: "What you're saying is probably from 'A Madman's Diary'."

  Zhou Yu patted his thigh: "Ah, I got it wrong, it's 'Diary of a Madman', the academic name is this one, how are you so knowledgeable?"

  I feel I can no longer sit back and watch things develop like this, so I immediately get up, open the door and walk out.

  Zhou Yueyue shouted from behind: "Song Song, where are you going?"

  I said: "You guys chat slowly, I'll go buy some food."

  As soon as I stepped out of the hospital room, Lin Qiao followed right after me. I thought I had to get rid of him, but since I didn't ride my bike today, things seemed a bit tricky.

  He kept a distance of two or three meters, following me at a steady pace. I was completely baffled as to what he wanted to do, and the more I thought about it, the more confused I became. This question tormented me so much that I couldn't eat or sleep. When we turned into a small alley, I finally couldn't bear it anymore and shouted: "What the hell are you plotting?"

  As soon as he finished shouting, I hadn't reacted yet and was pressed against the wall by the roadside.

  He lowered his head and looked at me, the carbon dioxide he breathed out just sprayed onto my face due to the close distance. The handsome young man from back then had grown into a tall youth, it was truly dazzling, I lowered my head and looked at the ground saying: "Great hero, what do you want to say let's talk properly, can you please let me go first?"

  Lin Qiao laughed above my head: "I think I understand now, this is the only way to cure you, if I let you go, you'll run away again."

  I said with a bitter tone: "I won't run, I promise I absolutely won't run, you have to believe me, our JJ members never lie, look at how tall and strong you are, even if I wanted to run, I couldn't outrun you."

  Although I spoke reasonably, he didn't take the advice and continued to hold my two hands, pinning me against the wall in an awkward posture. After a while, he said: "Yan Song, I've never had the chance to ask you, have you been doing well all these years?"

  I was taken aback, touched by his words "so many years", and the summer of my senior year suddenly flashed through my mind like a movie, with lightning speed. Actually, I still often dream about that time until now, but it's not as coherent as today, just some fragments, such as Lin Qiao's mother slapping me in the face on the spot, or me kneeling under Su Qi's building for two days, or my mom being taken away by a police car with sirens blaring, or the bloody knife and the wrist artery that was cut halfway but not dared to be completely cut off, and so on.

  That was five years ago, Lin Qiao and Su Qi were together for the third year, I had a crush on Lin Qiao for the third year.

  I started liking Lin Qiao from the first year of high school. After Lin Qiao and Su Qi got together, influenced by Qiong Yao's early works that romanticized third parties, I also thought about whether to go all out and fight for it. But at that time, I was only 17 years old and had no experience as a third party. Moreover, the internet was not as popular back then, so I couldn't find a successful third-party predecessor on BBS to guide me through the process. My chances of winning seemed slim. However, my love motivated me, and I really wanted to make it work. After thinking about it for a long time, I decided to go home and ask my all-knowing grandmother for advice. When my grandmother found out about this, she was extremely angry: "I read you so many Qiong Yao romance novels just to tell you that being a third party is not acceptable. Destroying someone's marriage will never end well. Look at New Moon Princess, didn't she die in the end? Ha! She deserved it. Yan Song, I'm telling you, if you really go and ruin someone's relationship, I'll kill you."

  At that time, my grandmother was already sixty-two years old, but she was still vigorous and well-preserved. I was deeply afraid of being beaten to death by her, so I had to try to strangle the thoughts about Lin Qiao in the cradle. But this was a really hard task, every time I thought I had succeeded in not liking Lin Qiao anymore, he would appear in front of me again, using an ice cream cone or a pack of dried orange peel to easily destroy all my defenses. I knew he just brought it for Su Qi when buying snacks, but there was no way to resist the warmth and kindness that inadvertently flowed out towards his friends.

  Lin Qiao and Su Qi's pairing was a foregone conclusion. At that time, our national key high school, under the influence of market economy, mostly had pairings of handsome boys with ugly girls or beautiful girls with awkward boys, which made the knowledgeable people in school feel that such a cultural environment had distorted the public aesthetic, and they all shook their heads and sighed. Lin Qiao and Su Qi's combination, however, gave them a glimmer of hope for a counterattack on the public aesthetic, and everyone was overjoyed.

  So the reality is, I like Lin Qiao, Lin Qiao and Su Qi mutually like each other. If I were to become a third party between Lin Qiao and Su Qi, not only would I be beaten to death by my grandmother, but also ridiculed and ostracized by all 5,000 teachers and students in the school. The pressure is so great that I was entangled for half a semester before finally letting go, deciding to distance myself from Lin Qiao and Su Qi to avoid one day losing control of myself and sadly becoming a third party.

  But cruelly, Lin Qiao didn't want to pull away from me.

  "After refusing his invitation to go home together for a whole week, he finally lost his temper: 'When did you become so nagging? I ask you to go back together, just go back together, what's the fuss about.'"

  Outside the window was a dark sky. Su Qi stood at the classroom door, casually trimming her fingernails.

  I chuckled and said, "Isn't this because I don't want to be a third wheel for you two?"

  Lin Qiao said: "It's late when school is over in winter, and you're renting a house outside, going home alone, neither Su Qi nor I feel at ease."

  Su Qi smiled and held Lin Qiao's arm: "Right, sending you back home is the same as us two going on a date. Song Song, if you don't leave now, you'll delay our movie time."

  Lin Qiao turned her head and smiled at her.

  I picked up my school bag and said: "Alright then, since you two want to be like Lei Feng so much, I'll give you the chance."

  Su Qi wrapped her arms around Lin Qiao's waist and sat on the back seat of the bicycle, wearing a white down jacket and black long hair, with two shallow dimples when she smiled.

  At that time, I thought that the TV said Maoning and Yang Yuyin were a golden boy and girl, objectively speaking, Lin Qiao and Su Qi are not bad either. The road back home is really long.

  The author has something to say: After so many chapters of happiness, I'm thinking, shouldn't it be time for some suffering...