Butterfly and Whale - Chapter 12

Shao Yun couldn’t get in touch with Hu Die, so he called Jing Yu all afternoon, from WeChat to @@, and he didn’t answer a video call until his phone was running out of battery.

As soon as it was connected, nothing could be seen at the other end of the video, and the signal was intermittent. Shao Yun fed him a few times, and when he saw Jing Yue with a disheveled face in front of the camera, he couldn’t help but say: “Who are you for?” Has the person been kidnapped to the black kiln factory?”

He meant to be joking, but Jing Yu really said “hmm”, put his phone on the table, turned on the faucet, and asked while washing his face, “Is that pottery museum near our school still open?”

“Whatever you say?” Shao Yun said, “Of course it’s open. Why, are you going to do something again?”

“Yeah.” Jing Yu made several clay models at home just to be on the safe side, and found three pottery shops, but the quality of the baked ones was not beautiful enough.

After much deliberation, only a casual kiln is the most suitable.

When he was in City B, he made a lot of things at his house, and there are still a few pieces of his pottery in the store.

Jing Yu walked out of the corridor with his mobile phone. The summer sun was bright and hot. He walked into the store and said, “I’ll be back tomorrow.”

“Come back?” Shao Yun was so excited that he forgot that he wanted to ask about Hu Die’s situation: “What time is the flight, I will pick you up.”

“No need, I’m just going to burn something casually.” Jing Yue paused for two seconds: “Don’t tell anyone else.”

Shao Yun responded verbally, but in his heart he was planning to call everyone to find him together: “I know, I know, you are the one who has more rules.”

“And I hung up beforehand.” Jing Yu put away his phone, opened the door and walked in.

The boss looked over from the bar: “What? Didn’t it burn successfully? I told you to ask the master to help you. You must.”

He responded casually and took a bottle of ice water from the freezer: “Check out.”

“Three yuan, scan the code yourself.”

Jing Yue took out his mobile phone to scan the QR code again, and after paying, he saw another message from Shao Yun.

Shao: I forgot to ask just now, do you know what happened to Xiaodie recently? I called several times and no one answered.

Jing Yu stopped on the steps outside the store, the mineral water bottle in his hand was exposed to the heat, and strings of water droplets condensed on the surface, dripping down the bottle to the ground.

He almost didn’t have to think about it, the scenes of the quarrel that day rushed out like a tide, like burrs stuck in the flesh, inconspicuous, but painful when touched.

Jing Yue: We had a fight.

Shao:?

Shao: Who?

Jing Yue: We

Shao:? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Shao: What the hell, what quarrel do you have?

Jing Yue walked down the steps, and the banyan tree beside the road towered into the clouds, covering most of the sunlight, and walking under the tree seemed to reduce the heat.

He let Shao Yun bombard him on WeChat, thinking about something in his heart, and unknowingly walked to the door of the hospital.

After saying that sentence in a hurry that day, Jing Yue actually regretted it immediately, but what he said was like water poured out, and there was no way to take it back.

In the past few days, he has actually been to the hospital many times, but every time he stops at the entrance of the hospital and dare not go in.

Hu Die was right, he was a coward.

no matter what.

Seeing that her birthday is approaching, Jing Yue no longer goes out frequently, and stays at home to prepare her birthday present, but the things have not been successfully burned, and she has never looked for him again. One thing.

Jing Yu lingered at the entrance of the hospital for a while, but in the end he still didn’t go in.

When he got home, he took a shower and didn’t have any appetite to eat, so he found a few boxes and packed the remaining clay models.

After finishing all this, Jing Yu bought a plane ticket to City B online, and when he was lying on the bed, he habitually clicked on WeChat.

The conversation with Hu Die was still on the day of the quarrel.

He stared at it for a while, typed two words and deleted them, and clicked on Hu Die’s circle of friends. She hadn’t updated anything in the past few days.

Jing Yue scrolled down and saw the photo of him and her. After a moment of silence, he put down his phone and sighed in the darkness.

Early the next morning, he took the remaining soil embryos and boarded the plane back to City B.

After more than a year, when he set foot in this city again, Jing Yu was still a little timid. He was born and raised here, and all his successes and losses started and ended here.

It was unseemly to leave, and no one cared about it when I came back.

Before Jing Yue had time to feel emotional, a gust of wind suddenly came from beside him, and Shao Yun hooked his shoulder and pressed down: “Hey, we’ve caught up.”

He looked forward in that posture, and the people who came were all teammates who had fought side by side in the team.

Fang Jiayi laughed: “It’s not interesting, you didn’t tell us when you came back.”

“Thanks to my cleverness, I called the airline.” Shao Yun stood up straight, relieved the strength in his hands, and Jing Yue also stood up straight.

He pursed his lips, and before he had time to say anything, several big boys rushed up and hugged him in the middle.

The young man’s body was full of vigor and enthusiasm, as if it could dispel all the gloom and indifference around him.

Everyone was laughing and making noises, as if they had gone back to the past, nothing had happened yet, and the blank space of this year was filled up in an instant.

Jing Yue tugged on the strap of the backpack, and said out of breath, “Hey – relax, don’t squeeze my stuff.”

“You really don’t have any flair at all.” Hu Wenguang punched him **** the shoulder: “Go, your dormitory bed has been packed for you.”

Jing Yue subconsciously wanted to refuse, but was blocked by Li Zhi: “It’s not bad that I didn’t force you to go back to the team and ask the coach to apologize to Jing, and I will wrong you if I let you go back to the dormitory for two days.”

Jing Yu smiled helplessly: “I don’t mean that, okay, let’s go then.”

Fang Jiayi: “That’s about the same.”

A group of people walked out in a mighty manner. They seemed to be afraid that Jing Yue would accidentally run away, so they surrounded him in the middle of the crowd. Shao Yun and Li Zhi held his arms on the left and right.

Jing Yue almost turned his back as he walked, he shook his arms and said, “I can walk by myself, we are blocking other people’s roads like this.”

Shao Yun: “It’s only a few steps away, the car is waiting outside, let’s go faster.”

As they said that, the boys started to speed up. Jing Yue was suspended in the air for the last few steps and was directly lifted up. When he got into the car, he was sandwiched between Li Zhi and Fang Jiayi again.

Jing Yue was a little amused: “Why? Take me as a prisoner.”

Fang Jiayi supported the handle on the roof: “Do you see if there are any other vacancies in this car?”

“…” Jing Yue sighed: “Then can you take me there first, I’ll go burn something.”

“Oh yes—” Shao Yun turned around from the front row: “What’s the matter with you and Little Butterfly, I haven’t called her until now.”

Jing Yu was silent for a few seconds before saying, “I…speaking badly made her angry.”

Shao Yun smiled: “You also know that your speech is not pleasant.”

Jing Yu didn’t want to talk too much, so he said: “Send me somewhere first, I’ll see if the kiln over there can work, or I’ll find another place.”

Hu Wenguang: “Okay, you mess with you, anyway, we asked for leave today, and we will accompany you.”

Jing Yue: “…”

Random pottery is opened in the back street of their school. It is a very literary shop. The owner is said to be the descendant of the five famous kilns, Ru Kiln.

Jing Yu had greeted the boss in advance, and went straight to the kiln in the backyard when he arrived at the store, as if he had returned to his own home. Shao Yun and the others randomly found vacant seats in the store.

Jing Yu stayed in the kiln all afternoon, destroyed two earthen embryo models, and finally burned the things out.

He greeted the boss, but he didn’t take the things away, “I’ll come back tomorrow, please help me watch and don’t let people move around.”

The boss responded: “Success.”

Shao Yun came over from the side: “Can we withdraw? We are almost starving to death.”

Jing Yu put his bag on his back: “Let’s go.”

Except for Jing Yue, they are all in the training period and cannot drink alcohol. For dinner, they asked for a small box in the school cafeteria. On the way back to the dormitory after dinner, I don’t know whether they intended it or not. When they passed by the training hall, Fang Jiayi Booing and dragging everyone ran in.

Jing Yue was a few steps behind and stopped at the steps in front of the door. He raised his head, and the moon was close in front of him.

Shao Yun stood inside the door, turned around and waved at him: “What are you doing, come in.”

Jing Yu looked over at him, the hall was lit up, and on the north and south walls were photos of everyone who won awards and many group photos.

Every time he entered the locker room, he had to walk through the corridor full of honor and glory, and he seemed to see his past self in a trance.

Stepping on the afterimage of the moonlight into the training hall, sometimes alone, sometimes in groups, everyone walked here with the same dream.

Jing Yu raised his foot to step up a step.

The summer nights in the north were not like those in the south. The heat dissipated, and the wind carried a bit of coolness, but there was an indescribable heat in his heart.

Jing Yue has walked these steps countless times before, and when he is in a hurry, he can cross them with one step, but tonight, it seems to be so long that he can’t see the end.

He sighed deeply, his Adam’s apple rolled up and down, as if suppressing his emotions: “Go, I’ll wait for you outside.”

This hurdle is too long.

He can’t get over it.

During Jing Yue’s few days in City B, Shao Yun and the others were busy with training, and except for the first day in City B, they didn’t have time to catch up with him.

But he wasn’t idle, he basically stayed casually during the day, and met a few of them for dinner at night.

The afternoon before he was about to leave, Shao Yun gave Jing Yu a voice recorder before going out, and he looked unnatural: “I recorded something for you, and I planned to send it to you directly, but I didn’t expect you to just come to B City, just take it and listen to it yourself.”

Jing Yue took it, and asked with a smile, “You won’t record anything messed up for me, will you?”

“Shit, am I that kind of person? You’ll know when you hear it yourself.” Shao Yun seemed reluctant to mention it, “I’m off to train, and we’ll have dinner together at night.”

“It’s okay, you go ahead.”

After Shao Yun left, Jing Yue fiddled with the birthday present for Hu Die. While waiting to dry, he turned on the recorder and pressed play.

There was noise for nearly a minute at the beginning, followed by Shao Yun’s coughing. He probably coughed twice to ease the embarrassment and said: “I’m so stupid, I’m really convinced, if it wasn’t for Little Butterfly asking me to help , I won’t do it, it’s too stupid.”

Hearing Hu Die’s name, Jing Yu was stunned for two seconds, then stopped what he was doing.

Shao Yun’s voice continued in the recording.

“Then what, let’s have a formal opening speech. Welcome to the story behind the famous swimmer Jing Yuezhi. I am today’s host Xiao Shao.”

“First of all, let’s welcome today’s guests, Uncle Zhang Kanghua, Uncle Du Liyuan, Uncle Jiang Zhongqiang, and our beautiful Auntie Song Jinghua.”

These four people are all colleagues and friends of Jing Yue’s father Jing Song during his lifetime. They often get together during the New Year and holidays. When Jing Yue is not training, he will go with Jing Song.

After Jing Song’s death, Jing Yu cut off contact with everyone in City B, and never had any contact with them again.

The recording environment was very quiet, and Jing Yu could still hear Shao Yun’s thoughts after saying this, saying why he hadn’t come yet.

After about a minute or two, he heard Shao Yun’s voice greeting the four of them. After Shao Yun asked them to sit down, the informal interview officially started.

Shao Yun: “I know that the four uncles and aunts were all good friends of Uncle Jing during his lifetime. The purpose of coming here today is also to find out about Uncle Jing’s usual work in the company…Have you talked about Jing Yue with you?”

It was Zhang Kanghua who spoke first. He and Jing Song were good friends and classmates for many years: “Why don’t you mention it, everyone is a slave to daughters, and he is a slave to sons. Half of the ten sentences are the same as Xiao Yue.”

Jing Yu couldn’t help laughing when he heard this.

Shao Yun: “Really, did Uncle Jing complain to you about Jing Yue’s learning to swim?”

Song Jinghua said with a smile: “Where is it? The entire wall in front of his office is hung with photos of Xiao Yue winning awards. When he comes to a partner, he can’t wait to start chatting with him from his first game when he was a child. How could he complain about Xiao Yue to us? not good.”

Du Liyuan also continued: “Xiao Yu is trying to win glory for the country, and Lao Jing is too late to be happy. Every time there is a competition, he must notify us one by one. Speaking of Xiao Yu, you and him are classmates. Do you know how he is doing recently? Huh? We called his aunt, but we could only ask about his life, and the other aunts didn’t know anything about it.”

Shao Yun said: “He really doesn’t have any major problems in his life now, but he guesses in his heart that he will never be able to get over that hurdle.”

Zhang Kanghua asked: “What hurdles can Xiao Yue not overcome?”

“That’s right…” Shao Yun was silent for a few seconds, and said: “Uncles and aunts also know that Jing Yu was in closed training in the team when Aunt Jing passed away, and he didn’t even see Aunt Jing for the last time. He only left to protect him, he probably thought it was a mistake for him to learn swimming, so now he has been suspended from school and practice, and he refuses to come back no matter what we say.”

There was a long period of silence and quiet during the recording, and finally Zhang Kanghua spoke first: “Student Xiao Shao, I know that you must have come to us today because of Xiao Yu. We don’t know what Xiao Yu is thinking now. But we can say with certainty that Lao Jing never thought it was a mistake for his son to learn to swim, he told us that the greatest pride in his life is to have this son Xiao Yue.”

Song Jinghua also said: “We all knew about Xiaoyu’s mother. At that time, he was preparing for the Asian Games, and the country chose him. This is something to be proud of. Compared with letting him retire and come back to be with me, his mother I still hope to see him get the glory that belongs to him on the court.”

Zhang Kanghua added: “If you can really contact Xiao Yu, you must tell him that the home of our uncles and aunts is his home, and we are all waiting for him to come back.”

Shao Yun said “Yes”: “I will, I will definitely tell him what you said today in full, and thank you for coming to talk to me today.”

Zhang Kanghua sighed: “Hey, we are all for the good of Xiaoyu. Lao Jing is our good friend, and his son is also our child. No parent wants his child to get better and better. “

Shao Yun laughed: “Yes, thank you uncles and aunts, you have worked so hard for this trip today.”

“Okay, if you need anything else, just give us a call.” Song Jinghua said, “You can call anyone, we can reach you.”

Shao Yun responded, “Okay.”

At the end of the recorded interview, Zhang Kanghua and the others bid farewell to Shao Yun. Jiang Zhongqiang, who was the only one who didn’t speak much during the whole process, suddenly said: “Student Shao, if Xiao Yue has any competitions in the future, remember to let us know.”

Shao Yun said: “Okay! I will.”

Jiang Zhongqiang said with a smile: “Xiao Shao, you also cheer for the competition. You are our pride and the pride of the country. We all hope that you will continue to win glory for the country.”

Shao Yun responded loudly: “Thank you uncle, we will work hard!”

“Okay, let’s go then.”

…

…

At the end of the interview, there was a rustling sound behind, Shao Yun said slowly: “This recording was made by Little Butterfly to help me contact my uncles and aunts, you see, in fact, Uncle Jing and Aunt Jing never blamed you .Jing Yue, come back, everyone is waiting for you to come back.”

At this point in the recording, the voices of Fang Jiayi and the others suddenly came out: “Jing Yue! We’ve been waiting for you! Next year’s Olympics, we can’t do without you!”

In the end, it was their coach Wang Wang: “You boy, you will be lazy. It’s been a year, and you haven’t had enough rest? Be careful, I will find someone to go to Rongcheng to tie you back.”

…

After the recording ended, Jing Yu sat there without moving for a long time, and there were people running and talking in the corridor outside the dormitory.

After a long time, he suddenly grabbed the recording pen, got up and walked out of the dormitory.

I ran into a lot of acquaintances, and some of them stopped to say hello: “Damn, long time no see, do you have time later, go get a skewer?”

Jing Yu laughed: “There is something wrong, let’s do it next time.”

“Okay, get in touch later.”

…

There are also some who didn’t recognize at a glance, walked past and turned back suddenly, as if they couldn’t believe it, and their tone was tentative: “Jing… Yue?”

Jing Yu stopped in his tracks, turned around and said, “It’s me.”

The boy was obviously very surprised. He walked up to him quickly and thumped him on the shoulder: “Why haven’t you made any movement since you came back?”

Jing Yu smiled: “Come back to do some errands, isn’t it summer vacation, so I didn’t tell anyone else.”

“Is that so, Shao Yun and the others also know?”

Jing Yu nodded: “I know.”

“Damn, it’s really not interesting, he’s hiding it too deeply.” The boy smiled: “Then you are going to go out now?”

“Well, go home and get some things, and I have to go back to Rongcheng tomorrow.”

The boy paused: “Still… go back there?”

Jing Yu didn’t say much, and patted him on the shoulder: “Let’s go first, I’ll contact you when I’m free.”

“Come on.”

Coming out of the dormitory building, Jing Yu walked out from the west gate along the path. His residential area was just two roads away from the B body.

After Jing Song passed away, no one cleaned up the house, and Jing Yue left in a hurry, the furniture was covered with dust.

He walked around the room, and finally stopped at the door of the study.

The study at home is said to be only used by Jing Song, but the walls and bookshelves in the house are all certificates, medals, and a lot of championship trophies that Jing Yue has received before.

After being discharged from the hospital, Jing Yue seemed to be having a hard time facing it. He locked the door and never opened it until today. He didn’t even know where he lost the key.

He went to the storage room to find a pair of large scissors, and cut the lock directly. The curtains and windows in the room hadn’t been opened for a long time, and the air was a bit stuffy.

Jing Yu touched the switch on the wall and turned on the light. Everything in front of him remained unchanged from the past. There were even documents on the desk that Jing Song hadn’t had time to clean up before he left.

He stood at the door for two seconds, then walked to the wall covered with certificates and awards.

In the past, Jing Song was afraid of falling dust, so he would frame every certificate and award in a photo frame, and there was an inscription written by him at the bottom. He wrote clearly which year and which competition.

In the lower right corner of the photo frame, Jing Song also put a two-inch family photo of their family of three. From Jing Yu when he was six years old until he was sixteen, the family photo was replaced by a photo of father and son together.

He looked over one by one, this wall not only contained all his past honors, but also all the love of a father for his son.

Jing Yu stood in front of this wall for a long time, thinking of the recording he heard before, his eyes turned red again.

He took a deep breath, walked to the desk, opened the curtain behind, and the sunlight immediately filled the room.

On the desk were Jing Song’s unfinished work materials. When Jing Yue put them in the drawer, he saw a notebook with “Whale Growth Diary” on the cover.

He picked it up and turned over the first page, which was written in Jing Song’s handwriting.

— Whale Growth Log

Recorder: Jing Song, Wen Yu

June 5, 2003

Today I took Xiaoyu to the swimming pool to learn how to swim, and unexpectedly found that he is very good at swimming. After teaching him a few times, he can swim by himself.

July 11, 2003

Xiao Yu met the first Bole in his life and started his swimming journey. I don’t know if this decision is right, but seeing Xiao Yu is so happy in the water, after I communicated with Wen Yu, I didn’t worry so much.

I hope Xiaoyu can always be this happy.

October 4, 2003

Xiao Yu won the first championship medal in his life. Although it is not a very formal competition, I hope he can make persistent efforts.

In 2003, Jing Yu had just started swimming. When he and Jing Song were playing in the swimming pool, they met coach Wu Rentao who came to the pool to talk about the competition.

Jing Yu was only six years old at that time, and he was very tall when swimming in the water. Coach Wu caught his eye and took him to train and compete all the way.

Until 2011, the 14-year-old Jing Yue emerged in the National Swimming Competition and became one of the rising stars of swimming in one fell swoop.

This whale growth diary also began to appear frequently in this year, such as competitions, awards and champions.

Jing Yue flipped through it quickly, and there was a blank year in the diary in 2013, until the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.

Jing Song wrote the longest paragraph ever written.

September 17, 2014

Xiao Yu is going abroad to participate in the Olympic Games. In previous years, Wen Yu and I would go to his team to watch the live broadcast of the games when he participated in the games. This year, Wen Yu is gone. After thinking about it, I still can’t miss it.

After Wen Yu’s death, Xiao Yu kept blaming me for hiding his mother’s illness, but I knew that he blamed himself and felt more guilty. I don’t know if Xiao Yue will have the chance to read this diary, but I still want to tell him that my mother never blamed you. Birth, old age, sickness and death are natural laws, and my father will leave one day. sad.

But when that day really comes, you may already have your own family, and I believe they will accompany you through the most difficult time.

You will always be our pride, Dad wishes you success in advance.

…

The content recorded in the diary is not much, and even half of the book has not been written, but it took Jing Yue a long time to read the content inside.

For a long time after Jing Song’s death, Jing Yu could not extricate himself from grief and self-blame. He even thought about dying in the sea just like that.

The lonely life of the whale is also his destination.

Jing surpassed the whale, as if his fate had been written from the very beginning, but no one expected that a butterfly would suddenly break into the sea where he was about to sink his body.

A butterfly flapping its wings by chance in the Amazon rainforest can cause a tornado in Texas two weeks later.

Her arrival may really save a stranded whale.

That night, Jing Yue didn’t go back to the dormitory. He invited his aunt to come over and clean the house. The dust in the house was swept away, and everything returned to the original state.

This night Jing Yue slept in his former room, and the sheets and quilts at home were all gray. He slept directly on the bare mattress, but rarely had a good night’s sleep.

He dreamed of Jing Song and Wen Yu, back to his childhood, the three of them lived happily in this room.

He is still swimming.

Wen Yu was not sick, and neither she nor Jing Song missed any of his games.

He kept winning awards and championships, and became the most dazzling existence in the eyes of everyone.

He was still the high-spirited Jing Yue.

Big dream.

Jing Yue woke up from the false joy, the furnishings in the room remained the same, he got up and walked out of the room, the room was full of sunlight like a shadow.

After washing up, he walked to the photos of Jing Song and Wen Yu, lit the incense, stood quietly for a while, and said, “Dad, Mom, I’m leaving.”

Jing Yu went back to the bedroom and turned off the air conditioner. When he came out, he passed by the study. After thinking about it, he went in and took a medal from the bookshelf and put it in his pocket.

The window of the study room was kept open yesterday for ventilation. Jing Yu was afraid that it would rain if it rained later, so he walked over and closed it.

After packing up everything, Jing Yue took the whale growth diary and walked out of the study.

Only this time, he didn’t lock the door.

The sunlight in the room was so bright that his past honors seemed to be shining brightly.

The author has something to say:

Note: “A butterfly flapping its wings by chance in the Amazon rainforest can cause a tornado in Texas two weeks later.” Source Network.