Chapter 4

  Jingxiang was on the bus and saw a couple embracing from afar. For some reason, he recognized Su Lan at a glance, extremely certain without any doubt.

  That head of long hair was very long and occasionally blown by the wind with a small arc, looking mischievous and cute.

  His car was parked under the tree, and the black shadow concealed its traces. Jing Yang looked far away at the man and woman in the distance, his head unconsciously tilted to one side, his eyes slightly narrowed, and with a "click", he lit the lighter in his hand. The flame jumped out instantly, red sparks dancing against the blue, casting a warm glow on his face, half bright and half dark.

  The phone suddenly rang, and the voice on the other end asked in a sweet tone, "Are you coming over tonight? I've made your favorite sugar and vinegar ribs."

  He didn't respond and hung up directly, then called again, someone on the other end said: "The land in Chengdong has been settled."

  He said in a low voice: "Uh-huh."

  "By the way, I heard you've got a connection with that professor, when are we going to meet him?"

  Jingyang replied: "First, let's slow down."

  After saying a few more words, Jingxiang hung up the phone.

  The snow fell thick and fast, like a madman, covering all traces.

  ………

  Su Lan went back home and as soon as she opened the door, a pungent smell of smoke hit her nose. She couldn't help but cough several times, and turned on the light with one hand.

  The light was a bit dazzling, she slightly turned her head to adapt, and then saw Jing Yang sitting on the sofa in the living room, with cigarette butts scattered around his feet.

  Su Lan fanned away the smoke and scolded with a twisted face: "Why are you smoking again?"

  He looked up and took a drag, exhaling a ring of smoke from his mouth, his eyebrows tightly furrowed. He stretched out his hand to extinguish the cigarette butt in the ashtray, shifted his legs, and calmly asked, "Back?"

  Su Lan didn't respond to him, changed her shoes, took off her coat, and then went to the air conditioner to press the switch.

  "I didn't eat dinner tonight, you go make something for me."

  Su Lan glanced at him and said: "What I made doesn't taste good, you'd better go get something yourself."

  "It's not delicious but it's edible, I'll have it ready and sent over in a bit." He said that, then got up and left for the room.

  Su Lan looked at Jing Yang's back, feeling like there was a stone on her chest, unable to breathe. The moment she stepped through the door, reality hit her hard. This is reality, she and Jian Xiu could never be together again, she had her husband, no matter how bad he was, and their son, flesh of her flesh. She let out a long sigh in her heart, turned around and went to the kitchen, deliberately choosing dishes he liked, cooking noodles for him.

  After Su Lan had finished messing around and went back to her room, she didn't see anyone.

  She put her face on the table and asked: "Where did you go?"

  The bathroom door swung open, and the man, wrapped only in a towel, his body still dripping wet, saw the noodles on the table, scooped up two chopsticks, and said discontentedly: "What's all this?"

  She saw him unhappy and pushed it off, saying: "I said you wouldn't like it, but you didn't listen."

  He put down his chopsticks, looked at her with a lowered head, reached out to wipe her mouth and asked: "Why are your eyes swollen?"

  Su Lan hastily dodged and turned her face away, saying: "I didn't have a car, when I was hailing a taxi outside, I got so cold that I cried, and my face swelled up."

  Jingxiang snorted coldly from his nose and said, "What can you do with that brain of yours? You can't even drive a car. It's no wonder you're freezing, you should have your face frozen rotten."

  Su Lan didn't look at him and said: "Are you going to eat or not? If not, I'll take it away."

  Admired without saying no, also didn't say eat, lowered head and went to kiss her.

  Su Lan was startled and hastily retreated backwards.

  He raised his hand and pressed her against the door, then pushed it shut with a bang.

  Su Lan felt inexplicable resistance in her heart, and she was also panicked. She lowered her eyebrows and didn't dare to look at him, saying: "Aren't we eating? You're not satisfied again? Why don't we order takeout?"

  "Why order takeout? The food outside is dirty and easy to get a stomachache."

  She cursed in her heart, the woman outside is even dirtier, you're still sleeping, poor thing! But she didn't say that out loud, only saying: "Then go eat, what are you taking out on me for, I'm not your punching bag."

  Jing Yang laughed again, took a step closer to her face, and the hot air from his nose carrying the smell of smoke hit her face. Su Lan's heart suddenly panicked, and she tried to escape from the side. But he wrapped his arms around her, pinning her against the door with her feet dangling in the air. Su Lan had no support this time, and her hands had nowhere to place, being pressed by him, feeling very uncomfortable, she hastily said: "Jing Yang, what are you doing?!"

  He didn't respond, lowered his head and kissed her temple, while the other hand unbuttoned her clothes, then went down hastily.

  Su Lan panted and hastily said: "Stop, stop it, the smell of smoke is too strong."

  He didn't slow down his movements and said, "Just adapt and it'll be fine."

  "Can't adapt."

  "Unable to adapt, or unwilling to adapt."

  His stubble scratched her neck, Su Lan's body felt itchy and uncomfortable, she shrunk her neck, and said with a hint of crying and laughing: "You should smoke less in the future, it's not good for your health. When you're hungry, eat first, it's not good for your stomach either. Put me down first, we'll talk later."

  He didn't care about her gaze, directly tore off her top and rubbed and kneaded.

  Su Lan felt uncomfortable, but didn't have the strength to resist. One side was cold and the other hot, and her mouth said: "I can't run away from you, why are you in such a hurry? Go eat first."

  He said: "The rice can't run away, what's the hurry." While saying that, he reached out to pinch her waist again.

  Su Lan trembled slightly, and suddenly felt a chill under her body. The rough skin she touched was both hot and hard. She hurriedly used her hand to block it, but was afraid of falling down, her movements stiff and awkward, when the man pressed down on her all at once.

  His mouth was blowing hot air, his eyes were bright red, and the sweat on his forehead had condensed into beads. Heavy and light, pressed her to make a faint sound, waiting for everything to be ready, he stood up and entered.

  A wave of pain washed over her, and she couldn't help it - tears of agony streamed down as Jing Yang rushed to her side. He flipped her over directly, and Su Lan instinctively wrapped her legs around him, her arms tightly embracing his neck, biting her lip, on the verge of tears.

  He stumbled upon her and said with a smile: "You're my wife, where are you going?"

  She bit her lip tightly and begged with downcast eyes: "Go, go to bed, I'm leg-weary, can't hold on much longer."

  "I'll hold you tight, I won't let you fall, and we can't run away."

  Su Lan felt unbearable and said: "I, I really can't take it anymore, Jing Yang, go to bed."

  He continued to exert himself, kissing her lips, nose, and eyes, saying: "If you can't hold on, just hug me tighter."

  She was about to open her mouth when he violently collided with her, making her head dizzy and she didn't even have the strength to speak.

  After the heat wave subsided, Su Lan simply curled up with a blanket and lay tightly on one side, her body still slightly trembling.

  Admire finished eating that bowl of cold noodles.

  She turned her head and took a glance, her heart softened, and casually mentioned: "Stop eating, it's all mushy."

  "If I don't eat this, what will I eat?"

  Su Lan was too lazy to argue with him, turned around and said: "Whatever." Then she snuggled deeper into the quilt.

  Jingxiang added another mouthful, but the noodles didn't taste right, and he suddenly lost his appetite. He slammed the bowl down on the table. Then he leaned back against the headboard, took out a cigarette to smoke.

  Su Lan heard the voice and turned back saying: "You stop smoking."

  "I've got a nicotine addiction."

  "Endure it, you'll get used to it. You weren't born with a smoking addiction, it's all because you've indulged yourself into this state."

  He looked down at her: "People are like this, self-conceitedly thinking that their self-control is strong, but in fact it's just a disguised indulgence of oneself, and then unknowingly it seeps into the bone marrow. When you want to quit, no matter what, you can't quit, how can you quit something that has entered your bone marrow? If you quit, you'll lose your life."

  "You can quit if you want to, it's not like your body won't recover. Your bones will eventually metabolize and get rid of the toxins too. Even if you don't want to, they'll be gone eventually." She furrowed her brow and added: "If you want to smoke, go do it outside, I find the smell unbearable."

  He suddenly smiled and said, "Wasn't it great just now? What's wrong?"

  Su Lan no longer paid attention to him and closed her eyes to rest.

  He glanced at the person beside him, endured for a moment, put out his cigarette, got under the covers, turned off the light and went to sleep.

  After all the commotion, both of them were physically and mentally exhausted. They lay down and fell asleep separately.

  Just fell asleep, and the phone rang again and again, non-stop.

  He dryly said, using his foot to push the person next to him and saying: "You take it."

  Su Lan opened her eyes in a daze, half got up to look around, saw his screen flashing, crawled over to him, answered the phone, didn't even look, and asked in a low voice: "Hello?"

  She had cried and been tormented, her voice was already hoarse, after sleeping for a while she had another relapse, her speaking voice unconsciously became smaller, soft and gentle, with an electric-like tone. The person opposite her was stunned, didn't say a word.

  Su Lan said: "Who are you looking for?"

  "Who are you?"

  Her mind slightly cleared up, her eyelids still couldn't be lifted, she turned her head towards the man and weakly said: "Looking for Jing Yang? He's sleeping."

  "Don't look for him, look for you."

  Admiringly listening to her for half a day, she couldn't explain clearly, and hearing the tone was very unpleasant. Without waiting for her response, he turned over, snatched the phone from her hand, and sternly scolded: "How are you speaking?" He put the phone to his ear and loudly asked: "What's going on?"

  "Jing Ge, I, Peng Kuang, fell asleep?"

  "Uh-huh."

  "Let's go out and have a drink."

  "It's already this late, just drink whatever."

  "This is a beautiful woman in her arms, call out to get together, now it's quite lively, just didn't drink well, changed to a quiet place, everyone sit down."

  Su Lan got down from Jing Yang's body, rolled over the quilt again, and couldn't even be bothered to lift her eyelids. She instructed, "Remember to close the door."

  Jingxiang leaned against his forehead and said: "Don't go, you should also sleep early."

  "I'm at home."

  "Goodbye."

  "Good night."

  He hung up the phone, turned sideways and closed his eyes, but still felt empty in his arms. He turned over and pulled her into his embrace.

  Su Lan was too weak to struggle and felt a warmth behind her, subconsciously leaning back.