When He Smiles - Chapter 34

On that night in the summer of 2012, the moon and stars were sparse. The earth was quiet, and the wind shook off the trees. Everything is asleep, and the breathing gradually becomes clearer.

“How do you know my phone number?”

She asked softly.

Chi Zheng laughed lowly, “You forgot what I did.”

She was startled slightly, and listened to him again.

“Is there time tomorrow?”

Meng Shengnan was silent, “Something?”

Chi Zheng said ‘um’.

“What’s the matter?”

Chi Zheng smiled, “I want to invite you to dinner.”

“eat?”

“Ok.”

Meng Shengnan moved his lips and heard the man over there joking.

“You washed the clothes for me, I have to ask you to say anything.”

There was a hum in her head, and it took a long time to make a sound.

“No, I will just be idle.”

Chi Zheng laughed, “I know.”

Her eyes flashed.

“After all, we are both so familiar.”

He was leaning against the window, looking sideways. The accent of the word “familiar” was slightly raised, and the simple sentence made her blush. Meng Shengnan grabbed the quilt on the bed and stared at him, “If nothing happens—”

“Have.”

He casually lost a word to her.

“Huh?” She was stunned.

Chi Zheng lit a cigarette and dropped the lighter on the table.

“It’s nothing, just chat.”

Meng Shengnan blinked.

“Oh.”

Chi Zheng spit out smoke rings, “What are you thinking about now?”

“Nothing.” She said obediently.

Chi Zheng smiled, “What is nothing?”

Meng Shengnan: “…”

He stopped teasing her, Meng Shengnan was scratching his cheek and suddenly heard him calling her name. It seems to be so different, low and deep, and it seems to be whispering. The corners of her mouth moved slightly, and then she heard him speak.

“Remember, you are in 1988?”

She mentioned it by accident.

“how do you know?”

Chi Zheng remembered the introduction of the magazine column and paused for a moment.

“Guess it.”

Meng Shengnan: “…”

“Why do you suddenly ask about this?” she asked.

Chi Zheng took a mouthful of cigarettes, “I have nothing to ask for.”

Meng Shengnan wanted to laugh a little somehow, and the whole person was relaxed.

“How about you?” she asked too.

He said faintly, “Huh? ’Screamed.

“How old are you?”

“How old do you say I am?”

His voice was a little ridiculous, mixed with a faint smile.

Meng Shengnan’s voice was low: “How do I know.”

“Is it.”

Meng Shengnan pursed his lips, but Chi Zheng didn’t ask any more questions. She looked up to see when the wind was strong outside the window. Both were quiet for a while, and she could hear the heavy smoke from his end. After a while, Chi Zheng said: “It’s getting late, go to sleep.”

“Yeah.” She whispered softly.

About to hang up, he called her.

“Are you going back to school tomorrow afternoon?”

“Ok.”

“Then I will pick you up at noon.”

“No need to–“

Chi Zheng said: “Ms. Chen wants you to sit with her.”

Meng Shengnan didn’t refuse any more, saying ‘oh’.

“I’ll call you when the time comes.” He said.

After ending the call, the phone screen is still on. She stared at it for a long time, and slowly stored the number in the phone before lying down again. Perhaps it was this feeling, his voice seemed to linger in her ears. She turned off the light and fell asleep.

When I woke up, it was not bright yet.

She felt that the phone call last night seemed like a phantom, and people went to look through the phone in a daze. I saw his name lying first in the list of contacts: Chizheng, and suddenly laughed.

The sunlight pierced the sky and awakened the earth.

She washed up and went downstairs to accompany the ceremony in the kitchen. The sun was rising, and Meng Jin took Xiao Hang around and came back just in time for breakfast. The little boy took a few sips of porridge and asked her: “Sister, where shall we go to play today?”

Meng Shengnan said: “Next time, sister has something to do at noon.”

“what’s up?”

Xiao Hang frowned and asked, and Meng Jin also watched the ceremony.

She thought for a while, “I’m going to visit my sister’s teacher, will it work next time?”

“Okay.” The little boy sighed.

The ceremony asked: “Your Teacher Chen?”

She nodded.

“Are you okay?”

“It’s okay, just go around.”

At eleven o’clock, she accompanies Meng Hang in the living room stacking wood. The little boy is very playful and clamored for a while and wanted to watch TV. She pressed the channel to the children’s channel, and just put down the remote control, the phone rang on the coffee table.

Meng Hang looked seriously, she leaned forward and picked it up.

“I’m at your alley.” Chi Zheng said.

Meng Shengnan: “Now?”

In the courtyard, the grand ceremony was under the tree, sitting and chatting with the next door Aunt Kang. She kissed Meng Hang and walked out with the bag. At the back, Aunt Kang smiled and said to the ceremony that the female congress was not going to stay, and a small breeze rolled up outside the alley. Meng Shengnan looked out along the laneway, and his motorcycle stopped by the side of the road, but he was not seen.

It was sultry at noon, and there were no people in the alley.

She walked all the way to the alleyway, halfway through her eyes, and saw him squatting on the side of the road. Head down slightly, with a cigarette in his hand. She looked at his back, wide and stalwart. Just now, her nervousness suddenly calmed down, and she yelled softly.

“Chi Zheng.”

Hearing the sound, the man took another puff of smoke. He threw it on the ground and trampled it out with his feet, then stood up and turned around.

“Let’s go.” He looked at her.

She got into the car behind him, Chi Zheng tilted her head.

“Build the road ahead, hold on to me.”

Meng Shengnan didn’t speak, and gently tugged at the corner of his clothes with both hands. Chi Zheng looked forward and curled the corner of his mouth. The streets are spacious and smooth. When he reached the place, he stopped the car. She followed down and asked suspiciously: “Why haven’t I seen a bad road?”

Chi Zheng took out the car key and glanced at her.

“That should be my memory mistake.”

Meng Shengnan: “…”

In the room, Chen Si had been waiting long ago. As soon as they arrived, they asked Madam Yang to prepare food, and they were left in the living room. She wanted to go to help, and was pushed out by Chen Si. It was only afterwards that I understood the woman’s mind, and I didn’t know what to say when I sat on the sofa.

“Go up and see?”

Chi Zheng asked her, raising his chin to the second floor.

“I?”

She pointed to herself.

Chi Zheng smiled, “Otherwise?”

“Will it be too convenient?”

“What’s inconvenient?”

Chi Zheng raised his eyes and stared at her.

Meng Shengnan avoided his gaze, “But after a while, Teacher Chen asked to eat—”

“It’s okay to come down again.”

Meng Shengnan blinked.

“Aren’t you busy in your shop?”

Chi Zheng looked at her playfully.

“Meng Shengnan?”

She said ‘ah’.

“Are you afraid of going up, what will I do to you?”

Meng Shengnan: “…”

In the end, he followed him upstairs. There was only one house on the second floor. Spacious, simple, with toilet. As soon as she walked in, he closed the door with his backhand. Meng Shengnan’s heart tightened, standing still at a loss. His voice rang low behind him.

“Sit anywhere.”

“It’s okay.”

Her right hand buckled the corner of her clothes, and Chi Zheng looked up. The woman in front of her in white short-sleeved cropped trousers, her expression tense. Chi Zheng hooked his lips and walked to the table in front of the window. Slowly opened the drawer, pretending to ask casually: “What books do you usually read?”

Meng Shengnan glanced at his profile.

“Nothing you like, just watch it.”

Chi Zheng raised his eyebrows, “Really.”

“Ok.”

Chi Zheng took out the book from the drawer and looked back at her.

“Have you seen this?”

Meng Shengnan’s heart trembled.

“I was in high school before, and someone gave me a book.” Chi Zheng slowly walked towards her with the book in a low voice, “It’s very interesting to say, I don’t know who she is or what she looks like. I only know that she Called Shu Yuan.”

After he finished speaking, he paused, his eyes locked on her.

“Later, I saw several articles with the same signature in the magazine, and I don’t know if it was her.”

Meng Shengnan has froze.

“Listen to my mother about what composition competitions you participated in.”

Chi Zheng paused on purpose.

“Do you know this Shu Yuan?”

Meng Shengnan looked at the book of meditations in his hand and couldn’t say anything for a while. His eyes are focused, and she can’t avoid it. Suddenly, I felt very sad for a moment, and it seemed that many things and many things would suddenly open my head.

“Sorry, I don’t know.” She said slowly.

Chi Zheng said, “Really.”

Meng Shengnan said: “Yes.”

His eyes were complicated, Meng Shengnan lowered his head and raised it again, “I will go down and look at Teacher Chen.”

After that, he evacuated and left.

Chi Zheng didn’t stop, he watched her open the door and go downstairs. The moment the woman’s back disappeared, his shoulders drooped down suddenly. Then he leaned against the door and smoked silently, one by one. After a while, he went downstairs. Chen Si sat on the sofa in the living room with a cold face.

“Where is she?”

Chen Si’s voice is serious: “What did you do to Sheng Nan?”

Chi Zheng frowned: “What’s the matter?”

Mother Yang just walked out of the kitchen and sighed.

“It looks like crying, the eyes are weirdly red.”

Chi Zheng frowned more severely and raked his hair irritably. Chen Si blamed him for leaving Meng Shengnan and not letting him eat and drive him back to the store. He had a phone call just then, picked up the job and left. Later, it was three or four o’clock in the afternoon when I was busy, so I went straight back to the store.

It looks like it’s raining outside.

At that time, Meng Shengnan had taken a bath for almost an hour and came out in a nightdress. The window was half open, and the wind slipped in from the seventh floor. She was sober-minded a lot, sitting on the window sill and staring out in a daze. After a while, raindrops slowly floated and splashed on the windows.

It was really embarrassing just now.

She sighed and looked at the rain, his words have not been digested yet. I don’t know if he has already seen the clues, but the rain keeps falling. She became annoyed again, why did she run away on an impulse at that moment.

Outside the shops in the city, the rain fell into a curtain.

The man leaned against the door, constantly playing with his phone and smoking a cigarette. Shi Jin glanced at him while staring at the game on the computer. After more than half an hour, the man was still the same, Shi Jin couldn’t help it anymore: “What’s the matter with you?”

Chi Zheng did not respond, his black eyes staring at the rain outside the door.

“Isn’t it for that woman?”

Chi Zheng gave Shi Jin a light glance.

“Yeah, really.” Shi Jinyi Le.

Chi Zheng: “Are you free.”

Shi Jin’s hippie smiley face.

“My buddy can really admire that woman now, and that’s how it can make you uneasy.”

Chi Zheng took a cigarette.

“Hurry up if you want to.” Shi Jin is funny.

Chi Zheng: “You **** know a shit.”

“Huh.” Shi Jin’s enthusiasm came up, “Is he rejected you?”

Chi Zheng was cold-eyed.

Shi Jin shrugged, “It’s not like you. You were an expert in coaxing women back then.”

Chi Zheng sneered.

After a while, he said: “She is different.”

“Tsk tsk.”

Shi Jin shook his head and sighed.

Chi Zheng: “Are you ill, are you?”

“You are sick, lovesickness.” Shi Jin defined it.

Chi Zheng: “Fuck.”

Shi Jin asked, “Is there something wrong with others?”

The rain outside got heavier and heavier, and Chi Zheng ran out of cigarettes. He touched his chin irritably, and her dodging eyes appeared in his mind. He squinted his eyes, looked through the phone contacts boredly, and then withdrew.

“I seemed to make her cry.” He said slowly.