In late spring, there are already cicadas in the courtyard outside the window.
The hissing of the cicadas is intermittent, which is more disturbing than usual, as if because summer has not yet arrived, they are not determined to fully devote themselves to this undertaking. They arrived early this year; obviously when they approached the window, the sound outside was
The dark night was still as cold as water, causing Qiao Yuansi's exposed skin to break out into goosebumps.
After placing the bird feed box on the window sill outside, she closed the window, picked up two mugs from the dining table, and glanced at an open notebook next to her. The hot tea in the mugs was too full.
The steam was rising as she walked slowly, whitening the air in front of her eyes like powdery mist.
Seeing this, Sakura Mizugan jumped up from the sofa, walked towards her in a few steps, and took the two teacups over.
"Why is it so hot?" He lowered his head, glanced at Qiao Yuansi from under some messy hair, and pretended to put the cup to her mouth: "Here, you take a sip first and I will take it over."
"Stop making trouble," Qiao Yuansi resisted for a moment and said with a smile - but the smile immediately dissipated.
The clock hands are almost ten o'clock, and the hot and noisy daytime gradually sinks like snowdrops, turning into a silent and cold night.
Qiao Yuanji was wearing suspenders and hot pants, sitting cross-legged on the carpet. He was holding the cup because it was too hot, and his fingers were cold without touching the cup. Sakura Mizugan was sitting on the sofa opposite, watching her fingers working for a while, and finally couldn't help but lower her head.
Laughed.
After the laughter in his throat dissipated, the two of them fell into silence again.
The last time they got together was too short, and they were separated for too long. When they met again, it was like light and shadow meeting solid ice, unable to find a point of communication and integration. Qiao Yuansi kept his head lowered. After a few seconds, he asked coldly.
Said: "Why did you come back?"
Hearing this, Ying Shui'an rubbed his messy hair a few times, fell down on the back of the sofa, and took a long breath. "I... I just happened to pass by this place and thought of you. Come over to see if you are okay.
."
Qiao Yuansi nodded silently, and the room became quiet again. She could feel Ying Shuigan's eyes sweeping over her again and again, and he stopped talking to him several times - he seemed not to have expected her.
She would close herself tightly like a clam shell, still hesitating for a moment, not knowing whether to crack her shell.
"I'm fine," Qiao Yuansi whispered, looking at his fingertips that were heated by the cup, and said, "Now you've seen it."
Ying Shui'an leaned forward, her broad and thin shoulders curled up slightly, and asked: "...you want me to go?"
Qiao Yuansi was silent for a while, then suddenly lowered his head and wiped his eyes with his hand.
"Since you decided to leave in the first place, you shouldn't come back again." She said hoarsely, "You know what I mean... and I also know what you meant at that time."
Ying Shui'an was startled and said nothing.
"I know that you only have fourteen months in each world, I know." Qiao Yuansi's voice became lower and lower as he spoke, "I know that even...even if you don't leave, I will still be a person after fourteen months.
People face this world. So it is also a good thing for me to get used to this state earlier... But, since you have decided this way, why are you coming back? "
"I..." Ying Shui'an wiped her face gently. The dark cloud shadows outside the window drifted over, blocking the white moonlight.
"It took a lot of effort for me to get used to it." Before he could finish, Qiao Yuansi almost shrank behind the mug and hid in the steaming heat, saying, "...It took a lot of effort for me to get used to it."
This was probably the first time he encountered this situation. Such an evolved person who seemed to be able to do anything with ease now seemed a little at a loss. "I... I just wanted to come and see you."
Qiao Yuansi still just looked at the tea in the cup. "I know, I'm fine now, I can handle it by myself, you don't have to worry. I escaped a danger five months ago, and I can continue to take care of myself in the future."
When talking about that incident, we can’t help but think of Jin Yan.
Qiao Yuansi closed her eyes, almost numbly, and slowly told the story of her acquaintance with Jin Yan; when her story came to the park that evening, her voice began to get lower and lower: "Jin Yan was then
She had just been infected, and she was still herself. So when those people gathered around me, seeing that I was about to get worse, she suddenly shouted, jumped up from behind, and knocked down two people... Thanks to her
I bought a little time before I could seize the opportunity to escape."
Sakura Mizugan pursed her lips tightly and nodded. "But she transformed later, right?" He moved closer, and his shadow and breath floated on the coffee table together, "The memory of a transformed person is coherent, doesn't she—
—”
"Dead," Qiao Yuansi interrupted.
The expression on Sakura Mizugan's face was condensed, and it looked more and more like a plaster statue under the moonlight outside the window.
"Later, when I sent her home, I told her that I would help her just like you helped me. But she was seriously infected. I was not sure at all at that time. In fact, I was already prepared.
If she couldn't recover, I had to leave my job and the house here and run away... As a result, I found her dead the next morning." She said in a calm tone.
"Suicide?" Ying Shui'an guessed it immediately.
Qiao Yuansi nodded silently.
The silent orange light of the desk lamp flowed down, slowly filling the silent void between the two of them. Sakura Mizugan lost a lot of weight, and his T-shirt hung loosely on him; he lowered his head and suddenly stood
He stood up and walked around the coffee table, plopped down and sat next to Qiao Yuansi. The wind stirred up his hair and T-shirt.
"……sorry."
He stretched out his hand, and when he was about to touch Qiao Yuansi, the latter suddenly turned around and threw himself forward into his arm. Ying Shuigan's whole body froze at that moment, and his half-stretched arm stayed in the air.
After several seconds, he slowly turned around and placed his fingers hesitantly on the warm and naked skin of Qiao Yuansi's back.
Qiao Yuansi couldn't even shed a single tear. She refused to let go, just raised her head, and held his neck like a vine trying to cling to a tree trunk. She rubbed her cheek against his Adam's apple.
His collarbone hit his chest, the warm and cold skin touched each other, and his breath and hair were all messed up.
"Tomorrow," she said, listening to her low, murmuring voice, like a sob: "Tomorrow, you leave...and never come back..."
Sakura Mizugan let out a hoarse breath that was almost painful from his throat.
The hair on the dark red Persian carpet is rich and fine, and clumps are tied on the back. It is lifted up and collapsed like clumps of waves. Qiaoyuan Temple is like a small boat, which can only swing uncontrollably.
On top of it, the dim table lamp was wrapped with fine dust, which swayed and circulated with the breath, giving everything a sad look like an old movie. The colors stretched and merged, and the living room stretched and changed shapes, and finally turned into layers.
A layer of endless white light shone into her mind.
Panting, Qiao Yuansi sat up and reached for the cup of tea that had mostly cooled down. She was so thirsty that she drank half the cup in one breath; the cicada outside the window gave one last long cry and then became silent again. She
He listened carefully and smiled silently.
Sakuramizugan had indeed lost a lot of weight, and the spinal muscles and scars on his back were clearly visible under the dim light. Even though he was naked, he still seemed to be unable to dissipate the heat. He approached the dining table and opened the window; he looked around
Look, he turned around and asked: "What, are there insects now?"
Did you see the pesticides outside the window? Qiao Yuansi nodded, raised his cup and took a sip of tea.
The notebook had been spread out on the table. She hadn't collected it yet, and she didn't feel the need to put it away. The dense writing on the notebook caught Sakura Mizugan's eyes, and he bent down and looked at it for a while.
Qiao Yuansi leaned on the armrest of the sofa, waiting for him to look up.
"Put the birdseed box on the edge of the window,"
While Sakura Mizugan still lowered her head and read the notebook without saying a word, she couldn't hold it in anymore and spoke hoarsely. That was what she wrote down five months ago. Of course she remembers it."
Since you decided to leave in the first place, you shouldn't come back again... I finally got used to it."
Ying Shui'an finally slowly raised her head, as if she had been poisoned.
His skin was so fair that it was incomparable to human beings, so when two dots of bright red finally appeared in the corners of his eyes, it was like blood dripping into the heavy snow, gradually spreading at an imperceptible speed. Qiao Yuansi couldn't help himself.
She laughed so hard that she had to cover her mouth, press her bulging cheeks, and cover the laughter back into her mouth.
"You...you have," Ying Shui'an looked at her, her voice trembling, and it was difficult to even utter words. A little water gradually shone in the makeup-like blood at the corners of his eyes. "Completely deformed?
