When He Smiles - Chapter 21

One year and seven months.

This is the time Lu Sibei chased her, if you count the summer vacation after the college entrance examination. At that time, she told Qi Qiao about talking to friends, that grandma could blow up, and she could not wait for a Nezha steamer to come to her in the next second and pinch her neck to interrogate the details. Just think about it. More terrible than Thomas’s psychiatrist Hannibal.

At that time, she still had short hair.

Roommate Li Tao once joked: “Have you ever asked Lu Sibei like your long hair or short hair?”

She thought for a while: “Is there a difference?”

“That’s true.”

Li Tao coughed, tossed his waist-length hair, and said, “What hairstyle do you think I suit?”

Meng Shengnan glanced at it, not really suggesting it seriously.

“Why don’t you iron a roll?”

“Really?”

Meng Shengnan laughed, Li Tao knew he was being tricked, and the people in the dormitory caught her to tickle her. She was most afraid of coming, and Li Tao was proud: “It’s uncomfortable to touch it. Then how can Lu Sibei bear it? You two are not talking in a platonic way, right?”

Not really.

In her impression, Lu Sibei is a particularly gentle and painful boy. He always seems to know what he is thinking, and then he will show up at the most appropriate time. The next day he was together, he wrote his Penguin Renren mailbox, including the password, on a piece of paper and stuffed it to her. Meng Shengnan couldn’t avoid it, so he could only let it lie in the corner of the dormitory drawer full of dust.

Li Tao said: “Lu Sibei does not love the country and the beauty.”

Meng Shengnan smiled.

That was 2008, sophomore year. Meng Shengnan hasn’t formally agreed to Lu Sibei, but sometimes the two will go to the library to read and study together without class. Sometimes she would take the book to the computer reading room on the first floor, and then write some essays or chat with old friends.

The afternoon sun covered the tabletop, sitting alone in front of the glass window.

She is reading the original version of Samuel Beckett’s Murphy, which is the first sentence in the novel, and it is also a very classic sentence. The predecessor said that one of the most conspicuous important details of a good book is to have a good beginning. As in this book:

Thesunshone, havingnoafternative, onthenothingnew. (The sun rises as usual, nothing has changed.)

She just wrote this sentence in her notebook, and the QQ in the lower right corner of the computer in the headset rang.

‘Brother is going to toss again. ’

It was a message from Jiang Jin. Meng Shengnan smiled at the computer screen. I heard that he had been to Golmud, Tibet for a few days, but Tashi Delek was the only one who came back to see people. Zhang Yiyan still blatantly provoke him in the group, the heart of a homeless man who is a rich second-generation fate.

She returned, where did she go this time.

Jiang Jin said, the Golden Triangle.

Meng Shengnan almost didn’t froze, and asked him about the specific situation. Jiang Jin is a serious man, saying that people are home in all corners of the world. The place is supposed to be quite dangerous. Jiang Jin seems to be determined to take a trip, and no one knows anything about it. After talking about serious matters, Meng Shengnan got off the line and started reading again.

Jiang Jin on the other end was blowing a whistle and was still immersed in the state of ‘good spirits for happy occasions’ after sharing.

The person was proud that the door of the dormitory was pushed open, and two people came in.

“What happened to be so happy?” a roommate asked.

The other boy laughed and snorted, “It’s not that good, it’s his **** girl.”

Jiang Jin said “Yo”, “Yes, Chi Zheng, you can guess accurately.”

“That roommate?” For a moment, “You don’t really have that thought, do you?”

“Go.” Jiang Jin snorted, “Am I that person.”

“It’s really hard to tell.” Chi Zheng shrugged.

“Damn it.”

Chi Zheng sneered.

The dormitory gradually became lively, Jiang Jin thought of something, and asked him again.

“How is your newly designed algorithm going?”

The boy frowned, “Still doing it.”

“Well, let me introduce someone to you.”

Chi Zheng raised his eyes: “Is it reliable?”

Jiang Jin patted his chest: “Brother brand, quality assurance.”

That afternoon, Jiang Jin called out to Lu Huai from the old campus. A few people gathered at the Xiangfu Hotel until the evening. After drinking two beers, they were acquainted with each other. Although Lu Huai did not learn computer science, he was capable in this regard. Back then, he was still chatting with Li Xiang on new concepts, and Jiang Jin knew it.

In the private room, several people were drunk.

Lu Huai kicked Jiang Jin. “If you don’t introduce such a good man, why did you go to you earlier?”

Jiang Jin let out a ‘tsk’, “Isn’t that unaware of it.”

Lu Huai kicked again.

Chi Zheng chuckled his lips and smiled, “Walk one?”

Lu Huai clinked glasses with him, and said sincerely: “Brother, we will greet you if you have anything in the future, we must respond to the call of □ and make progress together.”

“Come, come, continue.” Jiang Jin opened a few more bottles with great interest.

During the period, Chi Zheng and Lu Huai talked about their new ideas about developing software, and the two agreed. At that time, none of them had thought that in the future, they were all twenty-year-old youths, and their temperaments would also break in. But they are all men, so they just speak unambiguously.

Later, they all drank high.

Lu Huai took a taxi and left first, Jiang Jin and Chi Zheng went back to school with their backs on their shoulders. At that time, it was half past nine o’clock. The students on the side of the road went back and forth, and the night was dignified. Jiang Jin said after a while: “My buddy has liked a person for five years.”

When the wind blew, Chi Zheng was slightly awake and lit a cigarette.

“Not your girl?”

“That’s the same as my sister.” Jiang Jin smiled, “It’s another one.”

Chi Zheng took a puff of smoke.

“Always quarrel with me, never let that kind of step.”

“Unrequited love?”

Jiang Jin said ‘fuck’, “Thousands of flowers have passed by, and the reputation is well-deserved.”

Chi Zheng raised his eyes, pressing his tongue against his cheek.

“But you have been drought for a long time recently.”

Chi Zheng laughed.

The two walked while chatting, and returned to the dormitory half-shaking. Compared to the November sky outside, the room was very warm inside. Chi Zheng smoked a few cigarettes, then cut them off, and then lay straight on the bed. I was about to close my eyes when the phone in my pocket was ringing.

He touched it out.

“Drink too much again?” Lu Sibei sensed his drunkenness.

“Ok.”

Lu Sibei was helpless: “I found the relevant information about the algorithm you asked for last time. I just sent you an email. Remember to check it.”

“Ok.”

The boy answered vaguely, hung up the phone and put aside, just fell asleep. In the middle of the night, Jiang Jin on the upper bunk turned over in a daze, and the literary magazine next to the pillow slowly slipped from the bed.

The lower bunk Chi Zheng’s face has just been hit.

He half-squinted his eyes, took it away with his hand and threw it to the top of his head, only to hear a soft bang and it was quiet again. At that time, Jiu Jin came up again, his mind was raking his hair indiscriminately, and he fell asleep again.

Bai Yueguang fell on the ground.

Under the same sky, Lu Sibei, who was hung up, sighed, and Meng Shengnan, who walked out of the library together, couldn’t help but look up at him.

“Which one is your child?”

Lu Sibei said ‘um’, “It’s the one that’s really mixed up.”

Meng Shengnan smiled.

“By the way, it’s almost half past ten now, are you hungry?” the boy asked.

“Not hungry,” she said with a smile.

The two slowly walked back, and the night was quiet. For the next two months, Meng Shengnan slowly went idle. I usually go to the library to read writing when I have nothing to do. Lu Sibei occasionally takes her to alumni gatherings. Gradually, the relationship is self-evident.

Li Tao smiled and said: “Lu Sibei finally kept the clouds open to see the moonlight.”

After the Spring Festival, I walked to the train station where Lu Sibei sent her to, and told me all the way. Meng Shengnan was a little uncomfortable for a while, and could not tell, so he silently accepted. Until the train had traveled a long distance, she looked back and seemed to be able to see the tall and thin figure.

After six months of returning home, Xiao Menghang will slowly call his mother.

Meng Shengnan always stayed at home to play with him and teach him to talk about his sister, and he didn’t think about it. Qi Qiao didn’t come back that year, so she called her and said that she was going to visit relatives, and she was not alone. After nagging, Meng Shengnan hung up the phone and sat on the ground to accompany Meng Hang, but they were stunned.

“Nan Nan.”

The grand ceremony in the bedroom called her.

Meng Shengnan picked Meng Hang into the room and put it on the bed. After receiving the ceremony, he took out a list from the drawer and handed it to her.

“You go to the hospital and buy those kinds of medicines according to the above.”

She took a look: “What is this?”

“Your dad has a bad waist recently. The doctor said to catch it once a week. I almost forgot.”

“Poor waist?”

“Does your dad work as an office every day?” The ceremony screamed.

“…”

Meng Shengnan put the list in his pocket and walked into the yard. At the ceremony, she heard the sound of pushing her bicycle.

“Ride slowly.”

“Got it.” She called back.

She rode for about twenty minutes to the hospital, paid fifty cents, parked the car outside and watched, and then went in to grab the medicine. There is always a smell of alcohol disinfectant in the hospital, especially the medicine. There were people coming and going, she bought the medicine quickly and walked out of the hall.

It’s just that this person was stunned before he took a few steps.

“Teacher Chen?”

The woman was a little dull, sitting pale on the bench by the wall. As if he hadn’t noticed her, he half lowered his head and covered his stomach. She approached and screamed softly again. The woman looked up, and she was taken aback.

“Oh, Sheng Nan.”

“Ms. Chen, you seem uncomfortable, what’s the matter?”

Chen Si smiled faintly, “I’m sick with my old stomach, it’s okay.”

“Why don’t I help—”

Before she finished speaking, someone approached suddenly behind her, bringing a warm wind.

“Mom.” It was a male voice.

She froze.

“Sheng Nan, this is my son Chi Zheng.” Chen Si said with a gentle voice, and said to the boy behind him: “Mom’s student, Meng Shengnan.”

The girl froze for a long time before slowly turning around.

The boy is tall and thin, holding a few medicine sheets in his hand. He also looked at her faintly, and his eyes flashed slightly. The two looked at each other, the wind through the hall whizzed past, and the wind brought in when passers-by lifted the curtain. She trembled her lips and couldn’t speak.

“Hello there.”

He nodded lightly, his eyes quiet.

Suddenly there was a child shouting outside the door, cheering and laughing. They turned their heads to look over at the same time, and little snowflakes fluttered all over the sky outside the window. People all around shuttled back and forth, coming in and out. Meng Shengnan looked at him slowly, then smiled.

“Hello there.”

After she finished speaking, she turned around and greeted Chen Si a few more words before saying goodbye and leaving without looking back. Until she walked far away, the boy slowly withdrew his sight. He leaned over and helped Chen Si to stand up. The woman smiled and asked, “What did you just look at?”

The boy shook his head, “Nothing.”

The accidental encounter that day was too unexpected for Meng Shengnan. She never thought of meeting him again, and she didn’t realize that she was still nervous at the time. It turned out that after so long, she still had a heartbeat, in the winter that was full of snowflakes.

Read the motto at the age of sixteen or seven, the senior said:

The love of youth, sometimes like a gust of wind, comes and goes quickly.

Many people around her are like this, Meng Shengnan doesn’t know if she counts. If it counts, what about Lu Sibei? She didn’t know, and didn’t want to know. But there are many reasons for her, and there is no way to go back. One year spent similar, each year is different.

Soon after, Lu Sibei came to Jiangcheng from Shanghai.

When he called her to come out, Meng Shengnan didn’t respond, “Why are you here?”

Lu Sibei smiled, “Isn’t this I want to spend the New Year with you.”

It was the twenty-eighth Chinese New Year. Lu Sibei took her to Dance in Jiangcheng, and Hao invited Hupengou friends. He told her a lot about his junior high school studying here, but it was a pity that he didn’t meet her at that time. Meng Shengnan couldn’t tell what it was like, but he was calmer just by listening to what he said.

Everyone in the box was shouting and singing, and Hu Kan made a joke at her.

“Play yours.” He helped her drive away a lot of gossiping gentlemen.

It was lively, and someone shouted toward the door with their throats.

“Come so late?”

“Punish liquor, I’ll tell you.”

When he approached, the throaty boy threw a bottle of Qingdao over: “The feeling is deep and bored.”

The boy smiled faintly, holding the bottleneck with both hands, tilting his head and biting open with his teeth, slammed the bottle cap to the ground, and poured it directly into his mouth. That process took nine and a half seconds. As for that half second, Meng Shengnan was stunned after seeing him.

Someone shouted: “Interesting enough.”

“Why didn’t you bring a girlfriend?”

He threw the bottle to the table and smiled faintly: “It’s divided.”

“Huh, a few months this time?”

The man raised his eyes and his voice was light: “Enough.”

In the private room, the lights are half-bright and half-dark. Meng Shengnan drank Coke with his head down, but it was cold and bitter when it penetrated into his tongue. He could only hear the voice of him sitting across from his ear. Lu Sibei asked him what was going on, but the man laughed and said nothing. The boy raised his chin to Meng Shengnan, who was bowing his head, and looked at Lu Sibei again.

“Okay, you.”

Lu Sibei smiled and introduced each other. She slowly raised her eyes, and the boy’s gaze came over. As if they had never known each other, they were both silent for half a second, and then she saw him nod to her slightly and then looked away and chatted with Lu Sibei.

She felt a little bored, and went out to the bathroom with the excuse.

After she left, the boy lighted a cigarette and bit in his mouth, and asked Lu Sibei vaguely: “Is she your love at first sight?”

Lu Sibei smiled lightly.

What happened later, Meng Shengnan can’t remember clearly. I only saw him standing aside and answering the phone after the party broke up that night. It seemed that the person over there asked him where he was. The boy looked a little impatient and said, “It’s K.”

That evening, Meng Shengnan walked alone in the alley home, deep in silence.

Before you know it, snowflakes fall.