Twenty-three

  She kept a distance from him, and he looked pitiful. She suppressed her smile and asked where he was staying, and he said he had found an inexpensive hotel. When she asked when he would leave, he chuckled and said: "When you leave, I'll leave too." She stopped in her tracks: "I've applied for a week's vacation and won't be back until next week." He still smiled: "Then I'll stay till next week too. No one buys me watermelon to eat, I'm not used to it." She scolded him: "But all those years ago, no one bought you watermelon either, and you were fine!" He said seriously: "But now that you're here, it's different. Who made you spoil me?"

  She was suddenly struck by a mix of immense joy and sadness, unable to speak. He walked up to her and whispered softly: "Go back, I won't see you off this time. I'll be careful not to miss you."

  As she entered the house, her mother was sitting on the sofa sewing something and waiting for her. She changed her shoes at the door and the little dog ran over excitedly to greet her. She felt a pang of guilt, having completely forgotten about it when she ran away earlier. Fortunately, it knew its way back home.

  She sat down beside her mother with the caution of a criminal, not daring to make a sound. Before speaking, her mother let out a sigh that made her heart ache: "Aunt Hua downstairs is going to give birth next month, and I'll use the old bed sheets she gave me to make some small clothes for the baby."

  "Mom didn't mention what she was worried about, so she asked in puzzlement: 'Why use an old sheet to make a new one, wouldn't it be better?'"

  Mom said, "The little one's skin is delicate and new fabric is stiff. Making clothes with it will be uncomfortable to wear. The old cotton sheets have been washed and softened, they fit well and won't hurt the body." She reached out her hand to touch the fabric in her mom's hands, indeed it was soft and warm, feeling a sense of intimacy. In the city, probably very few people use handmade baby clothes like this anymore, they all buy them from stores. I suppose wearing something made with one's own hands is more comfortable, unfortunately newborn babies can't express themselves.

  "Xue Xue, you're all grown up now. Mom and Dad shouldn't make decisions for you all the time. But relationships between men and women are like clothes - what suits children and adults is different. Some clothes look beautiful on the outside but can cause allergies or discomfort when worn. If the workmanship is poor, it will fall apart easily. Some clothes may look old and unattractive at first glance, but they're actually comfortable and durable."

  She lowered her head and didn't dare to speak again. There was no one who understood her better than her mother. After a while, her mother asked carefully: "Fangfang, did you meet someone in Wucheng?" Her face turned red and she still didn't respond.

  Mom sighed again: "It seems that I really know someone. This time you came back and saw you for the first time, I felt that something was wrong with you." Like frost hugged her mother's arm, she didn't want to lie to her mom, but she also didn't know how to tell her about Ye Cang Ran. Should she say that she fell in love with a shadow who bumped into her seven years ago and didn't even see his face clearly? Someone as conventional as her mom would definitely think it's ridiculous. Moreover, Ye Cang Ran currently doesn't have a job that looks decent in the eyes of her parents, and there were also Liu Qing and Xiao Tang's words... It was obvious that this was a love that wouldn't be blessed. She felt anxious again.

  Mom gently stroked her daughter's hand, which had been spared from doing any household chores since childhood, keeping it slender and white. Such a beautiful pair of hands couldn't stay in their parents' grasp forever, but would they be treated well by the person who held them? Before her daughter returned home, Dad was furious, telling her not to come back to Wucheng again. Mom advised Dad to listen to what their daughter had to say first, maybe there were other reasons behind it.

  Her mother told her to go to bed first and she would sit for a while. She listened and went back to her room, but she didn't sleep all night until dawn when she fell asleep.

  Ye Cang Ran suddenly appeared at home and insisted on taking her away. Her father slapped him, while her mother hugged herself tightly. Her father pushed Ye Cang Ran to the window and coldly said: "Jump down." Ye Cang Ran looked at her with a desperate gaze before flipping over and jumping off. She heard herself shouting: "No————"

  Then she woke up in a cold sweat, and her phone rang at the same time. She remembered that it was just a dream, fortunately. For a while, she couldn't move, lying quietly there listening to her favorite song "Wind's Color" ringing on her phone. The caller was very persistent, and the phone kept ringing. Finally, she reached out to pick up the call.

  "Like frost." His voice came quietly, as if he was right next to me: "Like Frost, why did you take so long to answer the phone? I'm going to die of anxiety. I thought you went out again without bringing your cell phone and I didn't know where to find you."

  She held the phone and turned over, enjoying his concern and anxiety.

  "Like frost, did your parents-in-law scold you when you went back yesterday?" She shook her head foolishly and couldn't even remember that he was invisible. He became more anxious: "Speak up, Frosty, speak quickly, otherwise I'll break into your house."

  She suddenly remembered that she was on the phone and hurriedly said, "Don't come over, I'm fine really." He finally felt at ease: "Ruxue, is it inconvenient for you to talk?" She glanced at the time on her phone and said it was okay, her parents had already gone to work. He asked her what she was doing, and she looked down at herself still wearing pajamas and replied, "I was woken up by your call, I'm getting ready to get out of bed now." He scolded her for being a little lazy pig, then said he could imagine how cute she must look right now, just like the time he saw her wake up from her nap on the day they had hot pot, she looked like an angel standing in front of him. At that moment, he wished he could be by this girl's side every day, watching her wake up.

  They were like this, hugging the phone and talking about the silly things that couples in love would say, intoxicated. Unbeknownst to them, their phones had already overheated.

  Later she said, "Why don't you go back to Wucheng first? Isn't the concert on the other side of Shenqu okay?" He said, "It's fine, I've asked Ai Qing for leave. My vacation won't be over until I find you and bring you back." She was speechless again, he always knew how to say things that touched her heart. On the other end of the line, he laughed: "How about it, are you moved?" She pretended to be calm: "Not at all. But you should still go back first, or else you'll keep bothering me and my dad and mom really won't let me go back to Wucheng, what can I do?"

  He hesitated for a moment before saying, "Alright, I'll go back first, but you have to agree to three conditions." She listened quietly: "Firstly, you must come back by this Sunday at the latest. Secondly, you are not allowed to see that thin bamboo pole again." He suddenly stopped and she asked, "What's the third one? Haven't you thought it through?"

  "Thirdly, I want you to call me by my name and say that you love me. You know or don't know, it's always been me calling your name."

  After a long silence, he heard her softly calling out his name: "Yecanran..." He smiled and detected the awkwardness in her tone. Not wanting to make things difficult for her, he simply asked: "Did you agree with me?" She nodded while saying: "I agreed with you." He said: "I'll head back now, wait for you to come back and say it's okay definitely." She responded with a gentle "uh-huh".