Old Wounds, New Growth - Chapter 21. 2
This time, it was my turn to be stunned.
This moment came earlier than I had planned—I thought it would take some more time for Li Chishu to be willing to let me step into that dark and gloomy place where all his secrets lie buried.
"Say it again." I stared at him. "Where are you taking me?"
He said, "My home."
Li Chishu pursed his lips and said, "I... have something I want to give you."
"What is it?"
"You'll know once you go."
"En... then I'll..." I put my hands in my pockets and raised my chin, "be kidnapped by the top student of the grade, huh?"
Li Chishu smiled and reached out to grab the hem of my clothes. "If we don't leave now, we'll be late."
At this moment, the self-study session hasn't started yet, and students can still freely enter and exit the school gate during the last hour. I held onto Li Chishu's hand and walked against the crowd. In the noise, no one noticed the hidden undercurrent between me and him.
Finally, I stood in front of that old and dilapidated tube-shaped apartment building.
Li Chishu's home was on the fifth floor. We walked along the stairs, turning and twisting. The exposed iron on the handrail of the stairs was covered in rust, and when I tapped my fingertips on it, I could hear the dull echo from within the metal.
"An old lady who collects garbage lives on the third floor, along with her well-behaved granddaughter," Li Chishu climbed the stairs quickly, his eyes shining with excitement[1]. He continued to introduce the neighbors as we walked, "The fourth floor used to be occupied by a brother who gave me his bicycle when I was a child. But their family moved away, and now no one lives there... We've arrived at my home."
[1]in glowing spirits (idiom); bursting with life
While he was searching for the keys in his bag, he secretly glanced at me. There was a hint of uneasiness in his words. "My home... is a bit messy. You…"
"It's okay," I reassured him. "No matter how messy it is, it won't be messier than my room. My room doesn't even have space to stand."
Kill one thousand enemy soldiers while one loses eight hundred soldiers[2]. But this saying obviously made Li Chishu feel somewhat relieved.
[2] It means: to inflict damage on the enemy while one's own side suffers a smaller but comparable level of damage. But reversed.
Regardless of whether he believed me or not, he smiled. He inserted the key into the lock, and with a click, the old red-painted wooden door opened.
The house had been unoccupied for several months. There was a layer of leaves and thick white dust on the tiles of the balcony. However, the washing machine, stools, and several buckets at the entrance were neatly arranged. Even the clothes hangers were placed in an orderly manner, with the handles of the water buckets and the hooks of the clothes hangers all facing the same direction.
Li Chishu once told me that he enjoyed doing household chores during his student days, especially laundry, sweeping, and mopping the floor. It was an excellent way for him to keep himself occupied and avoid feeling idle when his mind needed a break. Doing household chores allowed him to avoid the anxiety of wasting time.
He continued this method of avoiding anxiety for many years, even when he didn't have a reason to be anxious in the first place.
The sofa in the house was covered with a bedsheet that had a few small holes in it. Li Chishu pulled back the bedsheet and gestured for me to sit on the sofa. "You, you wait here for a moment."
He turned and walked towards the room, and I followed closely behind like a shadow. When he entered the room, I politely stopped in my tracks and leaned against the door frame, waiting for him to come out.
Li Chishu's room was also very simple, with a bed, a wardrobe, two bedside tables, and a desk. The window was an old-fashioned tinted glass window with various colors. At the bottom, there was a window latch and hook, with the latch inserted into the worn-out wooden window frame. On the desk below the window, there was a plastic desk lamp and a stool underneath the desk. On the wall above the bedside table, there hung a wedding photo, which I assumed was of his parents.
I stared at the person in the photo, holding a plastic bouquet and smiling at the camera. In my heart, I silently asked, this time, I came a bit early, can you bless and protect him?
During the two minutes I was waiting for an answer, Li Chishu had already walked to the wooden bedside table and squatted down. He opened the drawer and took something out from the back, poured it into his palm. He quickly stood up and walked out.
"What did you take?" I asked.
Li Chishu tightly clenched his hand and returned to the coffee table, picking up the soy milk I had prepared for him. He turned to me and extended an invitation. "There's a rooftop terrace upstairs where we can bask in the sun... Would you like to go?"
-
Ten minutes later, he and I were sitting on the low wall of the rooftop terrace.
Beyond the low wall was a circle of iron railing. I held onto the railing and gazed at the sunset on the outskirts of the city. I asked, "Li Chishu, what is it that you want to give me?"
He took a sip of soy milk, then slowly opened his palm and extended it towards me. "For you."
I lowered my head and took a look, and my heart trembled. The comfortable warmth that the setting sun had cast upon my body suddenly cooled down by half. In that short moment, my breath seemed to pause.
It was a coin.
"What does it mean?" I managed to control my tone, but couldn't help but ask somewhat stiffly.
Fortunately, Li Chishu didn't notice my abnormality. He simply put his hand down, held the coin, and said to me, "After my father had an accident, the party responsible for the project compensated my mother and me with 140,000 yuan. My mother didn't keep a single penny and gave it all to me and my grandmother. I saved 40,000 yuan in my grandmother's bank account, and the remaining 100,000 yuan is only used in emergency situations."
"But I wasn't very capable." He lowered his head with a slightly embarrassed smile. "After studying for over ten years, I'm turning eighteen soon, and I get sick every year. Being sick costs a lot of money, and there have been many times when I had no choice but to withdraw money. As I kept withdrawing, the money eventually ran out. The last time, I was feeling so cold so I went out and bought myself a new cotton padded jacket and a hot water bottle. When I came back and emptied my piggy bank, no matter how I poured it, only this one coin came out—the only thing left from the money my mother gave me. After that, no matter what situation I faced, I couldn't bear to spend this coin. I endured and endured and managed to get through many things. I've kept this coin until today. By keeping it, I feel like there's always something in this world that belongs to me."
"Now... I'm giving it to you."
Li Chishu extended the coin to me once again, smiling as he looked up at me. Suddenly, he froze. "Shen Baoshan... What's wrong with you?"
"It's nothing." I quickly took the coin from his fingertips, turned my face away, took a deep breath, and turned back to him with a smile. "I just didn't expect that a coin could hold such meaning."
So, Li Chishu, when you gave it to me back then, what were you thinking?
Is it like today, deciding to let me and it become your support, or do you feel that even it can't accompany you any longer?
The unwavering persistence of my steadfast belief led me to misunderstand for so many years.
I took out the MP4 player that I had prepared for him from my bag, plugged in the earphones, and handed him one earpiece to wear.
Li Chishu stretched his neck to see what I was doing with my hands, curiosity getting the better of him. "What is that?"
I played a song that I had pre-recorded and saved in the player. "The song that I wasn't able to sing before. A promise to our family's Xiaobai.
As I pressed the play button, the music started playing, and at that moment, Li Chishu became quiet.
As the sun set in the distance, I propped up my hands on both sides and sang along to the music playing in my earphones with my heart filled with excitement and anticipation, then occasionally stealing glances at Li Chishu.
"—Li Chishu?"
"En?"
"I want to kiss you."
"......En."
-
November 24th, Sunny
The only advantage of Sundays is that you can fill your hot water bottle in the classroom without having to wait in line.
November 24th, Sunny
It seems like Shen Baoshan really has some kind of superpower. He even calls me Xiaobao just like my mother does. Is there anything he can't do in this world?
His lips are very soft, but when we're being intimate, we always lose track of time. It takes a while before we separate.
"Sunny day"[3] sounds very good. Shen Baoshan is mint flavored.
[3]Jay Chou’s song
Well, I already knew the coin would make an appearance when Li Chishu invited Shen Baoshan to his house. It was another beautiful chapter.
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