Chapter 688 Decided to Go to the City
The cool autumn night breeze blew dead leaves across the window lattice. The oil lamp swayed in the draft, stretching the shadows of Wang Jianguo and Zhao Shuzhuo longer and shorter.
Zhao Shuzhuo put down the abacus in his hand, the bamboo beads still shaking gently. He pushed up his glasses that had slid to the tip of his nose, and his eyes behind the lenses were somewhat inquiring:
"Hey, Jianguo, I don't quite understand. You don't have a family, and you don't have a partner, so how do you know so much about girls' minds?"
This sentence was like a stone suddenly thrown into a deep pool, shocking Wang Jianguo so much that the enamel pot in his hand almost fell over. The tea rippled at the mouth of the pot, reflecting his instantly flustered expression.
Memories surged like a tide, and countless trivial scenes flashed back before my eyes.
Recalling that afternoon when it was raining heavily, the storage room of the educated youth center was leaking due to disrepair, and sisters Yu Li and Yu Haitang were trapped in the small space.
In the humid air, the two sisters' fight for the last dry corner escalated from bickering to pushing.
Yu Li held half a moldy cake in her hand, her face flushed as she shouted, "I discovered it first."
Yu Haitang held the book in her arms tightly, tears welling up in her eyes.
When Wang Jianguo rushed in in the heavy rain, his clothes were already soaked. Without saying a word, he took off his coat and spread it on the ground, and put his straw hat on Yu Haitang's head. Only then did this "war" come to an end.
On the day of grain distribution, Qin Jingru and Yan Jiedi stood at the door of the warehouse, arguing over half a pound of cornmeal. Qin Jingru put her hands on her hips and said in a loud and urgent voice:
"Why does he have more and I have less?"
Yan Jiedi wiped her tears in grievance:
“It’s clearly calculated based on work points!”
Wang Jianguo squatted aside, rechecked the account book, and gave some of his own share, which made the two men burst into laughter.
What made his heart beat faster were the little things he experienced with He Yushui.
I remember the time when she was repairing a tractor. The sun was scorching brightly and He Yushui was squatting beside the hot machine. Sweat dripped down the ends of her hair, leaving tiny spots of mud on the ground.
When she looked up at Wang Jianguo, her eyes sparkled with trust:
"Brother Jianguo, how do I remove this part?"
Wang Jianguo's hands trembled unconsciously, and the tool almost slipped from his fingers. He Yushui, who was usually aggressive and capable, was like a docile kitten at this moment, which made him nervous and excited.
These images flashed rapidly through Wang Jianguo's mind. He opened his mouth but didn't know where to start.
His throat seemed to be blocked by a ball of cotton, and after a long while he managed to squeeze out a sentence:
"Hey, they are just trivial matters. You will understand them naturally after seeing them more often."
He lowered his head, not daring to look Zhao Shuzhuo in the eye, and pretended to wipe the enamel pot with concentration.
Zhao Shuzhuo seemed to see his embarrassment, but did not ask any further questions. He just patted his shoulder gently, stood up and said:
"Okay, I'll go pack my bags now."
Before leaving, he gave Wang Jianguo a meaningful look:
"Don't wait until you miss some things before you regret it."
Wang Jianguo looked at Zhao Shuzhuo's departing back, his thoughts still immersed in memories.
The moonlight from outside the window poured in, covering everything in the house with a layer of silver gauze.
He knew that these experiences with girls had already taught him how to understand and sympathize without him realizing it.
And the special feeling hidden deep in my heart for He Yushui, perhaps it's time to find a suitable time and bravely express it.
The oil lamp cast circles of light in the draft. Wang Jianguo bent down to add firewood to the stove, and sparks crackled and splashed on the blue brick floor.
Stumped by Zhao Shuzhuo's sudden question, he pretended to be calm and stood up, wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, and said with a dry laugh:
"Hey, my uncle has a lot of girls, all of them are cousins. I've been with them for a long time, and I've gotten to know them over time."
When he said this, he shook his shoulders deliberately, pretending to be nonchalant, but when he turned around, he accidentally kicked over the bamboo basket at his feet, and a few shriveled corns rolled to Zhao Shuzhuo's feet.
Zhao Shuzhuo bent down to pick up the corn, stroking the kernels with his rough fingertips, and his eyes behind the glasses were filled with a knowing smile:
"So Sister Yushui is also one of your cousins?"
This sentence was like a fine needle, accurately piercing through Wang Jianguo's pretended calmness.
Memories suddenly came flooding back - at dusk three days ago, He Yushui was squatting at the door of the agricultural machinery station, the red hairband on the end of her braid swaying gently in the evening breeze.
When she raised her face to hand over the wrench, her eyelashes cast fine shadows under her eyes, and the temperature of her fingertips touching each other was hotter than a soldering iron.
"What nonsense!"
The tips of Wang Jianguo's ears instantly turned red. He grabbed the straw hat hanging on the wall and put it on his head, his movements much more impatient than usual.
He turned his back to pick up the scattered parts on the table. The clanking sound of metal parts colliding was particularly harsh:
"Don't worry about my business. Go home and pack some clothes and go to the train station to see if there is a train today. Comrade Yang Xiaohua is still waiting for you. The sooner you go, the sooner you can come back."
When he spoke the last few words, he deliberately raised his voice, trying to drown out the sound of his own heartbeat.
Zhao Shuzhuo took out his pipe from his pocket slowly, the tobacco making a rustling sound in the copper pipe:
"The last time I saw you two repairing the thresher in the threshing ground, the way Yu Shui looked at you..."
Before he finished speaking, Wang Jianguo suddenly turned around, and the wind he created caused the kerosene lamp on the table to shake violently:
"Brother Shuzhuo!"
There was a hint of irritation in his voice.
"If you don't leave now, you'll miss the last bus!"
The moonlight poured in through the window panes covered with newspapers, creating broken silver spots on the ground.
Zhao Shuzhuo looked at Wang Jianguo's panicked and evasive eyes, and finally stopped asking.
He put the pipe back on his waist, patted the young man's tense shoulders, and said something meaningful:
"Don't wait until frost falls to harvest crops. Some words..."
His voice gradually dissipated in the night wind, and his figure passed through the creaking wooden door, casting a long silhouette on the door frame.
Wang Jianguo stood there in a daze until Zhao Shuzhuo's footsteps completely disappeared. The hall suddenly fell into silence, with only the crickets in the corner chirping tirelessly.
He touched his hot earlobe and remembered that He Yushui always quietly hung the washed work clothes on his clothesline in the early morning.
I remembered how she smiled at him when she taught the children in the village to read. I remembered the bowl of ginger soup she handed him on a rainstorm night, with the faint teeth marks on the edge of the porcelain bowl...
These memories were like spring vines, silently winding around him and making his chest feel stuffy.
The sound of a train whistle came from outside the window, startling a flock of night owls. Wang Jianguo walked to the door and looked at the direction where Zhao Shuzhuo was going away. The moonlight stretched his shadow very long.
He knew that some thoughts were like seeds buried in the soil. When the time came for them to sprout, they would break through the soil no matter how they were concealed.
But he also knew that he was a special person and could not make a promise to a girl casually.