TMISIU-chapter 18

In the evening on the last day of the holiday, Guo Cheng came back with a straw hat and a suitcase.

As soon as he walked in, he affectionately spoke: “Ying ge! Did you have a good vacation? Have you finished the painting?”

Wei Ying rubbed his sore wrist, not having a good temper: “Pay the money with one hand and deliver the goods with the other.”

“No problem!”

Guo Cheng gave a thousand yuan to Wei Ying.

After he got five paintings, he was amazed: “It’s too awesome. I have a feeling of deja vu about this painting. I think it was painted by me, but I don’t think it was painted by me.“

Wei Ying ignored it, took the money out of the bedroom, and went directly to the street to find a mobile phone shop.

Seeing that he was wearing the uniform of Gusu No. 1 Middle School, the clerk kept introducing him to the high-end mobile.

“Look at this. It has large memory and high pixels. Even if you sit in the last row and took a picture of the blackboard, you can definitely see every word clearly.”

Wei Ying was very excited but the wallet said no, so he simply said: “You can find one for me less than 1,000 yuan and can download WeChat.”

The clerk muttered: “Which mobile phone can’t download WeChat now?”

Wei Ying finally spent 999 to buy a domestically-made smart phone that had passed the season for two years.

Holding the lone coin from the change, he went to the business hall to buy a phone card with his own money.

After returning to the dormitory, he took a shower and lay on the bed to play with the new mobile phone.

Fortunately, there was Guo Cheng as a guide. After Wei Ying played around for a while, he roughly figured it out.

The first one he downloaded was WeChat.

He signed up for a WeChat account with his mobile phone number. The WeChat name was very honest with his real name, and his avatar was still the original grey human head.

He tried to take a picture of himself with the front camera of his phone, but when he saw it, he hurriedly deleted it.

“Ying ge, add WeChat account.” Guo Cheng was sorting out the photos taken during the holiday and intended to post it to his Moments.

Wei Ying grabbed his mobile phone and looked at his empty WeChat friends list, and refused: “It’s not good today, I will add you tomorrow.”

He wanted Lan Zhan to be his first WeChat friend.

Guo Cheng couldn’t figure out why he would pick a day to add a friend, but he would rely on Wei Ying in the future, so he replied:

“Okay, you can add it anytime, I’ll be there on call.”

Wei Ying decided to “decorate” his WeChat account, not wanting Lan Zhan to see his WeChat account as an unfinished building tomorrow.

He jumped up from the bed, jumped onto the seat and started painting.

Wei Ying painted a small dark blue planet with gouache. The planet was wrapped by a silvery white band of light, flying silently in the universe.

He adjusted the angle and light with his phone for a while, then took the picture, and set it as an avatar after a simple crop.

Then he took a photo of the moon in the snowy night he drew during the Art Club meeting last time and set it as the Moments’ cover photo.

After looking at the cover photo and profile picture of his Moments, Wei Ying turned off his phone and went to bed with satisfaction.

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The next day, Wei Ying rushed into the classroom early in the morning with a fully charged cell phone.

He read English book and Chinese book for a while, before wiping the two tables carefully. It took him a long time to settle down.

But he still got distracted when reading English, waiting for Lan Zhan to come, thinking of how to talk and ask him for his Wechat ID.

If Lan Zhan didn’t agree, he would pester Lan Zhan all day. If it didn’t help, he would find another classmate. Anyway, he must add him.

But until the bell for the first period rang, Lan Zhan still didn’t come to the classroom.

The first class, the second class, the third class…

Jiang Cheng was not there either, maybe he was on sick leave, but why was Lan Zhan miss classes?

Wei Ying held the phone in the drawer and couldn’t help but asked Nei Huaisang, who was known as the CIA of Class 1.

“Xuesheng didn’t tell you? He is about to participate in Math and Physics competitions. Today, he should be going to the city to participate in the competition preparatory meeting. It is a bit far away, so it is guessed that he will not come to school today.”

Nei Huaisang really lived up to expectations.

Wei Ying was slightly startled, Lan Zhan did not tell him.

Forget it, tomorrow Lan Zhan would come and he would ask him for his WeChat account.

Wei Ying was carrying his mobile phone everywhere that day, for fear of losing it. After all, this was the first real electronic device in his life, and he had to contact Lan Zhan in the future.

After class in the afternoon, Wei Ying put his mobile phone in his pocket and went to the cafeteria for dinner, but Xiao Xingchen caught him right after he entered the cafeteria.

“Wei Ying, your father is here at school. He is waiting for you at the gate. Go ahead, okay.”

Xiao Xingchen just went to the gate to pick up the courier. He saw a middle-aged man shouting at the guard to get into the school to see his son. He was dragged by the guard, not letting him in. Hearing the man said he was looking for Wei Ying, he agreed to help him call Wei Ying over.

“Wei Ying?” Xiao Xingchen yelled again.

Wei Ying’s expression was a little strange.

When he heard his father looking for him, it was as if he seemed to have heard some bad news, and his bright eyes were covered with a deep cloud of darkness.

Wei Ying took a deep breath and said thank you. He turned around and walked towards the school gate.

He walked faster and faster, and finally even ran up, but his footsteps became heavier and heavier.

In the twilight, the students in neat school uniforms on the campus were walking while talking and laughing, Wei Ying stepped on the drawn oblique shadow like a lead, and ran all the way to the school gate.

“I said that my son is studying inside. You don’t believe me, do you look down on people?!”

When Wei Zhuliu saw Wei Ying coming while panting, his first reaction was to slap the guard’s table, trying to find his arrogance after he was stopped by the guard earlier.

“You are a visitor. You have to register and contact the head teacher before entering our school! Otherwise, just let someone in, who knows if something will happen?!” The guard on duty was a young guy. Obviously, he had argued with Wei Zhuliu before, and he was even angrier at the moment.

“What do you mean?!” Wei Zhuliu rolled up his sleeves and took a big step, his voice high and loud, “Laozi come to school to see my son! What qualifications do you guard have…”

“Enough!” Wei Ying clenched his fists and yelled at Wei Zhuliu in a low voice.

Wei Zhuliu paused and turned his head to look.

Wei Ying stared at him with red eyes, his eyes full of fierceness.

Wei Zhuliu clapped his hands and pointed to the guard: “Laozi don’t care about you.”

“Go out, don’t block the door.” Wei Ying walked outside the door and said to Wei Zhuliu with a cold face.

There were already many students who had come to pick up express delivery from the guard post looking at them.

“Oh, go to a good school, so you start commanding Laozi.” Wei Zhuliu didn’t move from the guard room.

He took out a crumpled cigarette and a lighter from his pants pocket, He lit it in front of the guard and caught it between his rough fingers.

He shouted at Wei Ying, “Laozi didn’t eat anything to see you. Can’t you take me to the canteen for a meal?”

“Parents can’t enter school without calling the class teacher!” The guard couldn’t help but say again.

Wei Zhuliu exhaled a puff of smoke, and by looking at this posture, he was about to argue with the guard again.

Wei Ying only felt tired and seemed to have no energy to speak.

“I’ll take you outside to eat.” Wei Ying walked over and bent down to write his name and reason for leaving school on the guard’s registration form. He looked at Wei Zhuliu and slowed down, “Follow me.”

Wei Ying followed the narrow streets to find a noodle restaurant where he usually ate on weekends.

Wei Zhuliu was cursing along the way, Wei Ying was only silent.

In the noodle shop, Wei Zhuliu ate the noodles in the bowl with chopsticks. He seemed to be really hungry.

After eating, he took a low-quality paper towel and casually wiped off the sweat on his forehead.

He tapped the noodle bowl in front of Wei Ying with the chopsticks in his hand, “Buy me another bun.”

Wei Ying put down his chopsticks and went back with two bamboo steamers of buns and put them in front of Wei Zhuliu.

Wei Zhuliu began to lower his head to eat buns again.

Wei Ying looked at the noodles left in his bowl, and was not in the mood to continue eating.

When Wei Zhuliu had almost finished, Wei Ying asked, “What can I do?”

Wei Zhuliu must have learned from Yu Ziyuan that he came to Gusu High School to study. But before Wei Zhuliu had been working in the southern coast, why did he suddenly come to Gusu City? Also, he came to look for him specifically.

Wei Zhuliu threw away his chopsticks, drew a tissue to wipe his mouth lumpily, took a sip of the small bottle of strong wine and burped before he grunted and laughed: “I can’t come to see you?”

Wei Ying was very impatient, but it was him who bothered Wei Zhuliu and embarrassed him. He tried his best to calmly ask: “Now you have seen the person and eaten the meal, what else is there?”

Although it was already October, the noodle shop was still hot. Only the iron fan on the wall gave a bit of cool air.

Wei Zhuliu took off the washed white jacket, and his rough fingers pulled a few curls of hair.

After a while, he raised his eyebrows and said: “Do you still have money? Give it to me first.”

Last month, Wei Zhuliu’s work factory went bankrupt and closed down. The boss ran away. Neither he nor a group of workers got the money.

A fellow called him and said that Gusu City had a job opportunity with boarding and lodging. He stood there all night. The green leather train came over.

After paying some training fees, he finally found out that he was cheated. He used to spend as much as he earned to play cards, but now he only had a few hundred yuan in hand.

Wei Ying looked at Wei Zhuliu, obviously was not surprised, but still couldn’t help being disappointed.

He thought he was being ridiculous for still having expectations for Wei Zhuliu, expecting him to really just come and see him.

He pursed his lips and sarcastically said, “Do you think I will have money as a student? Is there anyone who asks his son for money?”

The latter sentence really angered Wei Zhuliu, his eyes full of fire: “Don’t you have a monthly allowance from the school? Except for the money for meals in the cafeteria, there are still one or two thousand left. How much can you spend as a student with that much money?!”

Wei Ying only felt suffocated. He tried to suppress his voice and said: “You know very well, but you don’t know how much your daughter spends on medicines every month? I leave the rest of the monthly allowance to Wei Yanli. Don’t you dare to touch a single cent!”

Then, came endless quarrels.

The owner of the noodle restaurant tried to persuade him several times, but he was scared back by Wei Zhuliu.

Several other people who ate there also hurriedly checked out and left.

“Laozi fucking raised a son for nothing to this day. Which of the money you spent on eating and studying was not earned by Laozi? Didn’t Laozi make you study in a big city today?!”

Wei Ying always thought that he would never be hurt by the person in front of him again.

He thought he had overestimated himself.

He seemed to be calm again, but his throat was dry: “Yes, you are right, but I should have grown up in a big city and studied in a good school, right?”

Wei Zhuliu suddenly smashed the wine bottle on the ground. He stood up and pointed out the door and shouted loudly: “Do you think I want to raise a son who is unfamiliar with me? Then you fucking get my own son back for me?!”

The sharp sound of glass breaking seemed to pierce Wei Ying’s eardrums. He closed his eyes, his eyelashes trembling vigorously.

He suddenly remembered that when he was very young, Wei Zhuliu would bring him candies and toys from the city when he came back from work, put him on his broad shoulders, and led him to run around the mountains and fields to play.

When did it start to change?

There were gossips from the village saying that he was not like Wei Zhuliu at all, it was Yu Ziyuan who stole someone outside, and hence, Wei Zhuliu gradually became more and more indifferent to him.

As the time spent between the two of them became less and less and Wei Ying also gradually grew up, the two became like strangers.

After knowing the truth from Yu Ziyuan’s mouth, Wei Zhuliu never looked at him directly, and even ridiculed a few words, just like now.

But now Wei Zhuliu came to ask him for money and asked him to return his own son to him.

What a fucking irony.

At this moment Wei Ying wanted to stand up and shout at Wei Zhuliu: “Your son is in this school, and he is in the same class as me. Go and recognize him yourself!”

But in the end, he just opened his scarlet eyes and stared at Wei Zhuliu with a gloomy face and sneered: “You should go to Yu Ziyuan and ask her why she did that in the first place, and then look at your own virtues. Do you think I want to have you as an old man?”

Wei Zhuliu looked at this “son” who had always been silent in front of him in disbelief.

He was furious, smashed the bowl on the table with his hand, and dropped a sentence: “I’ll come to you again in a few days! Have the money ready, you owe me this!”

He said and walked towards the outside of the noodle shop with a sullen face, and kicked the table before he went out.

The dark brown soup splashed on the sleeves of Wei Ying’s white school uniform.

He sat on the stool for a long time, and the violent ups and downs of his chest gradually calmed down.

He silently wiped the soup on his sleeve with a paper towel, but it wouldn’t come off. He gave up and got up to help the owner clean up the debris and soup on the floor, then settled the money with the owner and gave more as compensation.

The noodle shop owner took the money and looked at Wei Ying and sighed. After hesitating, he finally asked: “What’s the matter? Do you want to call the police?”

He listened a little and wondered if Wei Ying was abducted when he was a child.

Wei Ying raised the corner of his mouth and smiled as he shook his head and said: “It’s okay, I’m sorry to bother you.”

He finished turning around and walked towards the outside of the noodle shop.

The red and golden glow covered every street and alley in the city, but there were still many dark corners that could never be illuminated.

He walked in these dark corners and walked towards the gate of Gusu High School.

The tall school gate stood quietly in the twilight.

Wei Ying remembered that when he came here for the first time, he was full of ambition and hope, as if a new door to life had just opened, and he was about to embark on a smooth journey.

But now he looked at this door, wearing a school uniform that belonged here, but wondered if he had ever walked in.

It’s okay, Wei Ying.

He said to himself.

Even if his feet were stuck in the mud, he had to climb up desperately.

Wei Ying walked into the guard room and was about to register with the guard when he saw a slender man talking to the guard.

He was wearing a luxurious suit that was very valuable at a glance, holding a small black shopping bag in one hand.

Raising his wrist to check the time, he said to the guard:

“I called him and he didn’t answer. Can you help me contact his head teacher? I will pass the things to the head teacher and leave.”

The guard was obviously very kind to the man, always smiling.

In a blink of an eye, he saw Wei Ying coming in and said to the man hurriedly: “This student seems to be in the same class as your son. How about you give the things to him and let him help pass them on?”

The man turned around and looked at Wei Ying.

When he saw Wei Ying raising his head, he was slightly startled, and then showed a gentle and polite smile, before asking: “Young boy, are you also in the Class 1 of second year?”

Wei Ying looked at the man and nodded stupidly.

The man took a step closer, glanced at Wei Ying’s dirty sleeves, and said in a gentle tone: “Can you do me a favour? This is a small gift I brought to my son when I came back from a business trip. He won’t answer my call and so I have to trouble you to help me bring it to him.”

His words were not the least bit embarrassed that his son was not answering his phone.

Wei Ying glanced at the small black shopping bag. He couldn’t recognize the brand, but it should contain valuable things.

He didn’t really want to help, because he was afraid that he would take responsibility if something went wrong.

When he was looking for a reason, he heard the man continue to say:

“By the way, my son’s name is Jiang Cheng. He just transferred to Class 1 this semester. You should know him.”

Wei Ying looked at the man abruptly, he could hardly feel his breath at this moment.

He heard a very slight cracking sound exploding in his head, and his throat seemed to be suddenly blocked by a mass of wet cotton. He seemed to want to say something, but couldn’t say it.

The man looked at the boy’s red and moist eyes and was startled. After a while, he still smiled and asked, “Can you?”

Wei Ying lowered his eyelashes in embarrassment and nodded at a loss. He said “Okay”, but found that he could not make a sound at all and only made a mouth shape.

“Thank you so much.”

The man put the shopping bag in Wei Ying’s hand and joked, “If my son is behaved, I won’t have to go through so much trouble to give him a gift.”

The guard on the side was pleased: “Children like to play a small temper during the rebellious period. It will be fine after a while, you don’t have to worry too much.”

The man smiled, as if his son was really just a little upset, He said in a helpless tone, “I can’t help it, he was spoiled when he was a child.”

Wei Ying closed his eyes and took a deep breath, holding the shopping bag and lifting his foot to walk, but was lightly patted on the shoulder with a hand.

The man lowered his head and looked at his eyes. With focused and soft eyes, he smiled and asked, “I just forgot to ask, what’s your name?”

Wei Ying was silent for a while, and heard his dry voice say, “Wei Ying.”

“Wei Ying? A very nice name.” The man paused, then took out a business card from the card holder and handed it to Wei Ying: “If my son doesn’t want to take it up, you can call me.”

Wei Ying lowered his head and saw three words printed in the center of the pale gold business card: Jiang Fengmian.

Below was a string of mobile phone numbers, with no other content except for a very light perfume smell.

Wei Ying blinked vigorously.

He thought.

It turned out that his father was called Jiang Fengmian.

He seemed to use all his strength to lift his hand to take the business card.

Then he left quickly.

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Wei Ying went to the bathroom to wash his face before returning to the classroom, and then rubbed the soup stains on his sleeves with hand sanitizer.

He raised his head and looked at himself in the mirror, pressing the corner of the eye with a wet finger to make sure that the eye was not red before walking to the classroom.

On the way, he ran into people from the art club and said hello just like usual.

He walked into the classroom softly with a shopping bag, and the setting sun was laid on the desk, like a thick layer of late maple frost.

There were more than a dozen people in the classroom, most of them buried in their desks to catch up on their homework.

No one noticed him coming in and even if they noticed, they wouldn’t look up either.

But Wei Ying saw Lan Zhan, whom he didn’t know when he had come back, sitting in the last row, looking up at him in the twilight between orange red and greyish purple.

Many years later Wei Ying still remembered that evening when Lan Zhan looked at him in the twilight, and when he thought of it, the twilight would faintly appear in the corner of his eyes.

He lifted his foot and walked quickly towards the seat in the last row and sat down.

He briskly said to Lan Zhan, “Didn’t you go to the meeting? I thought you would not be back to school today.”

Lan Zhan looked into his eyes and answered flatly: “I left early.”

“The meeting must be very boring.” Wei Ying turned his face slightly.

He was a little afraid of Lan Zhan’s gaze, as if he would be able to see something.

He paused before putting the bag in his hand on Lan Zhan’s desk, and said in a calm tone:

“This is a gift from Jiang Cheng’s father. He didn’t come today. You can bring it back to him.”

Lan Zhan raised his eyebrows. He looked at the shopping bag, his voice became darker: “How did you meet Jiang Cheng’s father?”

Wei Ying pursed his lips. He heard Lan Zhan’s displeasure and pretended to say disapprovingly: “I met him at the gate. He called Jiang Cheng and no one answered him, so he asked me to help bring it.”

Lan Zhan didn’t say anything and threw the shopping bag into the school bag without a care, as if it was just a piece of insignificant rubbish.

Wei Ying breathed a sigh of relief.

He didn’t want to remember what happened in the evening, nor the people he met.

He took out his pen, lowered his head as usual, and started writing math papers.

His heart seemed to be so calm and chaotic that he forgot about adding Lan Zhan’s WeChat account for the day.

Wei Ying quickly worked on the question on his hand, trying to forget everything through continuous thinking and calculation, but then he suddenly heard Lan Zhan ask:

“Wei Ying, what’s wrong with you?”

It was still indifferent, but it seemed like he understood all of his emotions.

Wei Ying paused, looked at Lan Zhan with a smile and said, “What’s the matter? I’m just doing my homework. You don’t know yet, right? During the day, Teacher Shen assigned three more math papers.“

He didn’t know that there were still wet drops of water hanging on his eyelashes, and there was a faint red at the corner of eyes that could not be concealed by the twilight.

Lan Zhan looked into his eyes, and Wei Ying’s gaze flickered away.

Then Lan Zhan looked at the math paper he was working on and said, “Choose C for the third question. You don’t usually answer it wrong.”

Wei Ying was startled and looked down at the question. It was a very simple question. He didn’t even know how he calculated it just now.

“Thank you, I’ll fix it.” He lowered his head and hurriedly took out the correction tape from his pencil case.

He felt Lan Zhan looking at him, and it made his hand movements more awkward for a while.

It took him a while to cover up the wrong answer, and then took the pen and circled the C.

Then he heard Lan Zhan slowly speak: “I remember I told you, you can talk to me directly if you have something, and I will listen.”

Wei Ying tightened his grip on the pen, and his eyelashes fluttered.

“Tell me, did you encounter something?”

His voice was low and even a little soft, as if to induce him to say something.

Wei Ying’s fingers couldn’t stop trembling, he squeezed the pen firmly, his chest was sore.

But what could he say?

Saying that his father, who had “raised” him for sixteen years, asked him for living expenses and was a bloody scolding dog?

Said that he met his biological father and he asked him to help hand over gifts to his precious son?

But this fucking was more ridiculous and funnier than drama.

He could say nothing.

“I didn’t encounter anything.” Wei Ying lowered his head, staring at the gel pen in his hand, and pressing his lips tightly.

“Tell me.” Lan Zhan’s voice became deeper, with irresistible pressure.

Wei Ying was silent for a moment and suddenly looked at Lan Zhan. His eyes were completely red.

He suppressed his voice and said, “If I tell you that I want to cry now, but there is no place to cry, are you satisfied?”

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