The subway station.
Tu Hengsha and Su Ronggui walked one after the other.
She was fuming and said nothing; he also remained silent, keeping a steady distance of one step behind her.
Suddenly, she rembered sothing and searched through her mories. She turned back mockingly, "Mr. Su, do the eldest sons of the Su family even know how to take the subway?" Her impression was that soone like Su Rongxing, who always rushed ho in the Su family’s luxury car right after work, had never taken the subway.
"No." Mr. Su quietly stuffed the subway card back into his pocket.
Her face was full of disdain, as if saying, "Grandma was right; you really are inept at living." "Let ask you just this—why did you throw away the zongzi I gave you?"
She was a person who could love soone for a long ti but wouldn’t hate soone for too long. Just like her classmate, Xiao Xu, soone she rembered since she was five years old—she had thought about him for twenty years and would continue rembering him, even if he changed. To her, Xiao Xu was unrelated to Su Ronggui. As for people she hated, like the classmate who betrayed her, she would forget them after the hatred passed. Why rember them? Rembering hatred ant rembering the hurt. Maybe others hurt her montarily, but her hatred could hurt her for a lifeti. So, she rembered how, when she was in junior high, she poured ink over that girl and then chose to forget about it, not keeping in touch.
Though Su Ronggui threw away her zongzi, she didn’t hate him, but she couldn’t treat him with the sa closeness as Xiao Xu. Perhaps because he was Xiao Xu, she still reserved room in her heart for forgiveness.
At this mont, she wanted to hear his explanation.
He was slightly silent, his eyes like a mountain after rain, in the bustling subway.
She was waiting for his explanation, staring at him. This exchange of looks made her emotions drift between Xiao Xu and Mr. Su, inexplicably feeling wronged. She lowered her head, biting her lip.
Suddenly, soone bumped into her heavily from behind, pushing her onto him.
He imdiately reached out and held her.
The unique scent of green grass filled her nostrils. Her first instinct was to push him away and stand up, but his arms tightened. She heard him say in her ear, "I’m sorry."
So it was just an apology? Where was the explanation she wanted?
"It wasn’t ..." he said.
She was muddled; if it wasn’t him, then who was it?
"You were right. I am Xiao Xu, and I rember now."
She stood there, utterly confused.
"From now on, it’s always..."
She thought of that older boy she had enthusiastically followed since first grade until finally standing before him one day. Yet what greeted her was coldness and cruelty, and suddenly, her eyes welled up.
"Co, teach how to buy a ticket." He held her hand and lined up at the end of the ticket machine queue.
Afterward, she was entirely dazed, awkwardly accompanying him to buy the ticket, go through security, and get on the train.
In the morning, the subway was as crowded as a skillet full of pancakes. People were packed tightly, and even when they finally squeezed on, more people pushed in, and the car, already filled to the brim, had another wave of people pouring in. It felt like her chest was being crushed, making it hard to breathe, as if her internal organs were squeezed out.
Finally, the car doors closed.
Tu Hengsha struggled to adjust her stance to barely breathe. Still, unfortunately, soone nearby emitted an odor in the cramped space that made breathing unbearable. Tu Hengsha was used to it; she just lightly held her breath without reacting further.
However, a hand suddenly pressed on the back of her head. Before she knew what was happening, her face was pressed against a chest, and instantly, the foul sll vanished. Her breath was filled with the clean, crisp scent of grass.
In the crowded public space, her face flushed red involuntarily.
She tried to move in protest, but with everyone packed so tightly, there was no way to move.
Resigned, she turned her head slightly, pressing her cheek against his chest so her nose wouldn’t get squashed.
Maintaining this posture, the subway swayed gently forward. Close against him, it was different from any other ti she had been squished like a human pancake on the subway. There was no discomfort and no disgust.
Knowing soone like this existed in the world, who felt innately intimate with her, amazed her; though she said she disliked Mr. Su, every sense of hers betrayed her, proving otherwise.
She really didn’t dislike this kind of contact with him.
In the hospital at Jin County or now in the crowded subway, they fit together naturally, like they had known each other for years.
So people, just one look, seed to last a lifeti.
She believed in that saying a bit.
At least she would never forget Xiao Xu, not even if they never t again, she would always rember. At five, when she was still a child, a little boy ward her entire childhood and even youth with a lollipop. Without him, there wouldn’t be soone like Tu Hengsha...
Gradually, her eyes filled with warm tears.
Xiao Xu, Xiao Xu, should I have t you again? At least for nineteen years, I haven’t shed a tear, but since reuniting with you, I’m turning into soone made of water...
She was used to being a strong reed in a storm, firmly grasping the soil and growing despite the wind, never giving up. No one had ever created a harbor to shield her from it until now, allowing her, the little wild grass, to stand firm and steady.
The subway slowed down and stopped, but she didn’t lean forward because he was always supporting her weight.
Nobody got off, but another wave of people squeezed in.
The subway was like magic; clearly, there was no room left, but at the next stop, if soone pushed in, people always managed to squeeze in.
Because of the newcors, they moved slightly. Even a little movent could invite people to press forward, like a dam bursting and the flood of people pouring in.
He protected her with one hand, even though his other hand was in a cast!
She suddenly got angry, spreading her arms protectively like a mother hen shielding his injured arm. "Stop squeezing! Can you wait for the next train? There’s soone injured here! You! Yes, you! Stop pushing and stay back!"
She hunched and bent, carving out a relatively spacious space for him in the crowd.
He gazed at her blankly, suddenly recalling those sick nights growing up, shivering alone in bed even wrapped tightly in blankets...
"Silly! I’m fine!" he whispered, his voice inexplicably hoarse.
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