BSS CH 4

Moon City

When Cheng Jing arrived at Yuecheng, he realized that he didn’t know where he should go.

The drizzle in Yuecheng hit the car window. Cheng Jing held his chin and looked at the childhood scenery flowing into afterimages outside the car window. When he wanted to say something, he realized that Liang Jingmin was not sitting next to him.

For three years, Liang Jingmin’s constant surveillance had become a habit that was difficult to get rid of. Cheng Jing laughed dumbly. It turned out that regaining freedom didn’t feel real.

He wanted to go home to see his parents, but he didn’t go upstairs when he walked downstairs.

Over the years, Cheng Jing’s parents have always thought that he kept the enviable good job in Xijing, found an excellent and handsome partner, and together with the beautiful academic qualifications he got many years ago, he made a perfect child in the secular sense, which was a great topic for neighborhood gatherings.

It seems that these titles can meet all the expectations of a pair of parents. Years of raising is just a long-term investment. They hold the chips that are obviously profitable, and do not expect their children to suddenly appear out of the track.

They certainly didn’t know that everything was a scam put together by Cheng Jing.

The so-called excellent target was nothing more than a pervert who would do anything to torture their children for fun. In order to get him, he would ruin his reputation, strip him of all his social identities and relationships, and cut him into a beautiful and useless coral on the palm of his hand.

The job is still retained, and the salary is deposited into Cheng Jing’s bank card on time, although Liang Jingmin no longer allows him to go to work. All he can do is sit in the empty and gorgeous villa, gradually degenerating into a rare plant for people to enjoy.

Cheng Jing left the community, called a car, and chose Yuecheng No. 1 Middle School as his destination.

When he came out, he took the housekeeper’s mobile phone. He had bought a new one at Xijing Airport a long time ago, and considerately threw the housekeeper’s old mobile phone into the lost and found office of Xijing Airport.

Since I’m back in Yuecheng, let’s go back to high school. Cheng Jing remembers that seniors often appeared outside the window when he was in high school. They waved happily, and the teacher on the podium went out to greet them. The rest of the people could study on their own. It was the best of all worlds.

Cheng Jing blamed himself for missing high school. At that time, the suppressed meritocracy and bitter secret love oppressed him. Even though Cheng Jing was already a “genius” in the secular sense, the growing pains still followed him like a shadow.

However, it was not until Cheng Jing walked to the school gate that he found that No. 1 Middle School had been renovated a long time ago, and a facial recognition gate was installed at the gate. He didn’t have the phone number of his class teacher in his mobile phone, so he couldn’t enter the school gate at all.

However, this trip was not in vain, because he met Lin Shuheng right after that.

Lin Shuheng and Cheng Jing were in the same class in high school. Because it was a competition class, there were only two girls in the class, and Lin Shuheng was one of them.

“Cheng Jing?” Lin Shuheng ran after him.

It was raining in Yuecheng, and Cheng Jing didn’t wrap himself up like a dumpling. The desolate, alienated and disturbing whiteness made it easy to recognize him. Cheng Jing paused and looked back, a little bit unable to believe his eyes.

Lin Shuheng walked to Cheng Jing’s side in a familiar manner: “What a coincidence, how come we meet here! You didn’t even tell me that you were going back to Yuecheng, we should have dinner together!” After seeing his face clearly, she was surprised and said: “Why are you so thin!”

Cheng Jing smiled gently, he couldn’t recognize her at first – she was completely different now, with long hair, cheerful and calm. Only when she smiled with curved eyes could he vaguely see her original appearance.

In his memory, Lin Shuheng was a shy and quiet girl with a bob haircut, probably because there were not many girls in the class, and she was not the kind of girl who could play with boys, always sitting in the corner of the classroom without looking up to do exercises.

Speaking of which, she and Cheng Jing were in the same class for three years, and there was a scandal for more than a year, but the two were not familiar with each other in private, and they established contact only after entering college.

At that time, most of the students in the class passed the math, physics, chemistry and biology competitions and entered the national training team, and were directly recommended to top universities. A small number of people failed in the competition and had to come back to prepare for the college entrance examination. She was one of them.

The first vivid impression of her was the first joint examination after the competition. She had missed several months of cultural courses, so she was naturally not as good as other students who were preparing for the college entrance examination day and night. She cried in the corridor with a stack of test papers in her arms during the evening self-study. She corrected the wrong questions while crying, and the papers were wrinkled like pickles.

He had already received a reduction in scores at that time, and the college entrance examination was just a process, but he still stayed in school to study. He happened to see this scene when he went out to get water. He walked up to her and helped her fold the papers, and whispered: “It’s okay, take your time.”

Speaking of it, they were just strangers at that time, but Lin Shuheng later said that she always remembered that night. The two walked side by side, and the light of the purple gymnasium made her pupils sparkle. She said, Cheng Jing, you are really a very gentle person.

Lin Shuheng was already the first in the grade in the second model, and later she went to Beijing University with her bare score.

She later went smoothly, was admitted to graduate school, went abroad for further studies, and is now an associate professor at a very good university in Yuecheng. She and her husband were pregnant and went to the delivery room. Their two children could already speak before Cheng Jing got married.

The economic situation is down, young people are tightening their belts to make ends meet, and the fertility rate is declining year by year. Lin Shuheng was a somewhat radical individualist in her early years, but in the end she became a good girl, married and had children early. Cheng Jing often thought that only people with happy families would desire marriage and love. He and Lin Shuheng are very similar, but it’s a pity that they didn’t meet the right person.

Cheng Jing used to think about Lin Shuheng’s life, thinking that if Lin Shuheng loved Liang Jingmin, then she would not have all the peace she has today, even if what she had been seeking in the first half of her life was a romantic, intense and bumpy love.

The two sat down in a cafe and talked about their recent life. Lin Shuheng opened the album on her mobile phone and found that it was full of photos of children. She smiled and complained that they were naughty. In Cheng Jing’s eyes, her smile was slowly blurred by the rain, and shrunken into a magical shadow. She seemed to live in another world.

After that, she asked: “Are you still with Liang Jingmin?”

There were not many invitees to the lakeside villa wedding many years ago, and she was one of them. Lin Shuheng did not know the entanglement and details between them, but he keenly perceived the truth from the atmosphere and asked Cheng Jing if he needed help.

Cheng Jing was afraid that she would get into trouble, so he refused all help and stubbornly cut off contact. In fact, he was very sorry.

Together, this is a very subtle word. In Cheng Jing’s opinion, to be fair and not to deceive himself, he and Liang Jingmin had never been together.

“We broke up,” he said, “He’s getting married again, you know that, right?”

“Yes, but aren’t there many wealthy families like them who marry each other? So I asked one more question,” Lin Shuheng supported his chin and explained with a smile, “I don’t understand you guys, it’s really more exciting than novels.”

“But in fact, I saw that your relationship was not ordinary when we were in high school. Liang Jingmin, who is so cold, would stand up and close the window after you said you were cold.”

She seemed to be talking about another life, no matter whose it was, it could not belong to Cheng Jing. In Liang Jingmin’s youth, there was no such person as Cheng Jing.

Cheng Jing did not correct her, but a long-lost memory suddenly emerged in his mind.

In the top-floor suite of Luogang Hotel, white snow was floating outside the floor-to-ceiling window, cold and warm, and the flames burned around the heart.

Liang Jingmin touched a part of his body, and he trembled with joy, but when he touched his lips, he only complained about the cold. The flames kissed his ears, and the gentle and low voice made his heart vibrate at the same frequency as everything else, twisting him into the storm that collapsed the earth and cracked the sky. He was no longer himself.

“You are always afraid of the cold.” The low and hot whisper in his ear, the indifferent people can also be lingering and tender.

The high-rise building made his soul tremble, but he inexplicably liked the feeling of being surrounded by blizzards. With thousands of lights under his feet, he leaned into Liang Jingmin’s arms without any scruples, as if he could stop thinking about anything and live like this for the rest of his life.

What was he thinking at that time? It seemed that he was thinking that it would snow in Luogang.

…

Cheng Jing was silent for a long time, obviously unwilling to say more about this topic, and Lin Shuheng was also tactful and did not ask more questions. He took this opportunity to bring up something else: “Why are you back to No. 1 Middle School? I just wanted to go in for a walk, but the guard stopped me.”

“My cousin is in high school here, her parents are out of town, I came to deliver something,” Lin Shuheng smiled, “Now the management is strict, it was easy to sneak in before.”

“Is Teacher Ji still here?” Teacher Ji was their high school class teacher.

“Yes, he seems to be teaching the second year of high school now, I can help you contact him if you want.” Lin Shuheng took out his cell phone.

“No need,” Cheng Jing waved his hand quickly, suddenly feeling that he didn’t want to see him that much.

Lin Shuheng stubbornly wanted to send him the teacher’s phone number: “Do you still use your old WeChat?”

Of course not. Cheng Jing registered a new account, and the two added WeChat. The contact list was empty.

Lin Shuheng slapped his forehead and said, “You just said you are not working now, and I suddenly remembered something. The students who are about to enter high school are preparing for training. The chemistry team is recruiting coaches. They will go to the Jingxiang base in two days. It is just right for you to go. Do you want me to help you contact them?”

The location of No. 1 Middle School is good but too noisy. During the holidays, the competition team will be organized to go to the Jingxiang campus for training. Cheng Jing also went there that year.

The middle-aged teachers in high schools cannot do competition questions. They only recruit coaches for recommended students or previous graduates. Cheng Jing was in the chemistry competition group of No. 1 Middle School that year, and he also took related professional courses in college. He is indeed suitable. However, after graduating for many years, his work direction was different. Cheng Jing didn’t remember these knowledge at all, and smiled bitterly and shook his head.

“Hey, if you pick it up, isn’t it more than enough to teach the first grade?” Lin Shuheng slapped the table, “Are you willing? I know the teacher very well.”

When Cheng Jing walked out of the cafe and said goodbye to Lin Shuheng, he was still thinking about this matter. He felt that he was probably unconscious due to the fever – why did he nod his head?

*
It was already late when Liang Jingmin returned to the villa. He was a little dizzy from drinking, but he was still keenly aware of the abnormal atmosphere.

He tentatively called out to the housekeeper Zhai, but no one answered. He quickly went upstairs. The door of Cheng Jing’s room was locked from the outside. When he opened it, he saw the housekeeper who was anxious and angry in the inner room.

The housekeeper was not unconscious for too long. When he woke up, he found himself lying in Cheng Jing’s room, but the door was locked from the outside. Cheng Jing’s room had no windows and the door was unusually strong. The housekeeper’s mobile phone was stolen, and he was simply crying out to the sky and the earth for help.

He told Liang Jingmin everything in detail. When he finished speaking, Liang Jingmin’s face was so ugly that it could not be described as ugly.

“How long has he been gone?” he asked in a deep voice.

The housekeeper pondered: “He asked me to borrow my phone at 10:30…”

It was already 2:30 in the morning, and Liang Jingmin’s face darkened. Cheng Jing had made a scene, struggled, and even called the police, but he had never left without saying a word. In Liang Jingmin’s opinion, he couldn’t and didn’t dare.

He quickly turned on his phone and started to make calls non-stop. No one who answered the phone in the middle of the night dared to get angry, and the clues were obtained quickly – the housekeeper’s phone was at Xijing Airport, and there was only one ticket information under Cheng Jing’s ID card, which was to Yuecheng.

Cheng Jing seemed to really believe that Liang Jingmin would not look for him, and he didn’t even know to buy a few more tickets to confuse the audience. His last look back in the surveillance did not have any emotion, like some kind of silent provocation. Or maybe it was just a silent farewell.

Liang Jingmin felt the fire bursting all over his body, and the deep well wasteland was burned with snake-shaped smoke. He felt that he suddenly couldn’t control his limbs and became an attachment to his emotions.

When he left home, it had become a mess. The broken TV was completely destroyed. The housekeeper calmly cleaned up the mess.

Before leaving, Liang Jingmin only said coldly: “Book me a ticket to Feiyue City tonight.”