In the ward
After the last bottle of medicine was transfused, Shu Yuan called the nurse to remove the needle.
Shu Yuan took out the washbasin and towel she brought from home and said to Tang Mi, "Tangtang, I'll get some hot water. You can watch the next year here."
Tang Mi nodded, "Okay, Auntie."
The nurse pulled out the infusion needle and saw a little blood returning to the back of Jiang Suichu's hand. She took a cotton swab and pressed it to the eye of the needle. "Little girl, come and hold it for a while."
Tang Mi walked over, took the cotton swab from the nurse's hand, and gently pressed the bleeding area. After the nurse left, Tang Mi saw a piece of red rope exposed at the corner of the quilt.
That was the jade Buddha that Jiang Minghao had just taken off and put into her hand.
Tang Mi's eyes trembled slightly when she thought of the scene just now. She didn't dare to look at Jiang Suichu's face. She lowered her eyelashes and slowly turned her head, trying to divert her gaze. Suddenly, her eyes froze, fixed on the long black square on the hospital bed.
It's an iron lighter.
She picked up the lighter that was so old that the paint was peeling off. Her white fingers were in stark contrast to the black lighter.
She had seen this lighter more than once, when Jiang Minghao was smoking. It must have accidentally fallen onto the hospital bed while pulling.
The door was pushed open, and Shu Yuan came in with hot water: "Tangtang, please help Suisui up."
"Hey, okay..." Tang Mi quickly put the lighter into her pocket and threw the cotton swab into the trash can after making sure Suisui's hand was not bleeding.
Shu Yuan put the basin on the bedside table, twisted a hot towel and wiped Jiang Suichu's body. When she wiped her right hand, she saw the Jade Buddha held tightly in Jiang Suichu's hand.
Shu Yuan wanted to take it out and wipe her hands, but found that Jiang Suchu's hand was so tight that she couldn't open it with her fingers.
"Where did this come from?" Shu Yuan looked at Tang Mi. She remembered that Sui Sui didn't have this pendant on her before she left.
Tang Mi half sat beside the hospital bed, holding Jiang Suichu in her arms so that Shu Yuan could clean her body. She glanced at the pendant in Jiang Suichu's hand, lowered her eyes and said, "It belongs to Jiang Minghao."
Shu Yuan paused when she heard the movement of her hand, and then asked casually: "Tangtang, are you familiar with Jiang Minghao?"
Tang Mi was stunned for a moment when she heard this and shook her head: "We have only known each other over the years. We just met not long ago."
After saying this, Tang Mi realized that she seemed to have only met Jiang Minghao a few times.
"Oh~ that's right." Shu Yuan wiped with her other hand and continued to ask: "I heard his surname is also Jiang. Are he and Suisui related?"
Tang Mi said: "No, we thought they were relatives at first. However, Suisui said that they are from the same village, and most of the people in their village have the surname Jiang."
"So that's it." Shu Yuan put the towel back into the basin, then gently took Jiang Suichu from Tang Mi's arms and slowly put him back on the bed.
"Then he and Sui Sui grew up together?"
Tang Mi stood up and covered Jiang Suichu with the quilt, "Yeah."
Shu Yuan looked at Jiang Suichu, who was sleeping soundly, and gently tucked the strands of hair on her forehead behind her ears. She was thinking about things that Sui Sui didn't want to say, maybe Jiang Minghao should know.
"Oh, it's already so late!" Shu Yuan raised her hand and looked at her watch, only to realize that it was almost ten o'clock. She smiled apologetically at Tang Mi and said, "I'm sorry, Tangtang, for wasting your time."
"No, Auntie." Tang Mi waved her hand.
Shu Yuan picked up her cell phone and said to her while dialing: "In this case, I will ask the driver to take you and Tang Zi home."
Tang Mi was about to say no, they could go back by themselves, but before she could say anything, Shu Yuan's driver's phone was already connected.
She had no choice but to swallow what she was about to say, "Auntie, I'll go down and call A Nian and Pei Shuo now."
——
downstairs
Four teenagers stood in the wind. The autumn wind blew the cigarette butts in whose hands flickered. The strong smell of smoke was carried by the wind and penetrated into the cool night.
Jiang Minghao bit the burned cigarette butt in his mouth, stood up and patted the ashes on his pants. He raised his eyes to look at Lu Zhinian, whose eyes were heavy and his jaw was tense, "Is there anything else you want to ask?"
The night was very dark, and no one saw the red eyes of Lu Zhinian.
"That piece of jade..." Lu Zhinian paused, "Why did she ask you for help?"
What else happened that made her so uneasy even in her dreams. And why, when she grabbed the jade Buddha, it was like grabbing a life-saving straw.
The wind blew and lifted the hem of his clothes.
Jiang Minghao habitually raised his hand to touch his neck. When he felt that the back of his neck was empty, he paused, then lowered his hand and put it into his trouser pocket.
"She drowned, almost..." and died in the river in front of her home.
He didn't finish his words, but the meaning was already obvious.
Pei Shuo stood up and was shocked: "Drowning?!"
Lu Zhinian's heart suddenly shrank and he looked at him in disbelief.
There is a small river flowing from Jiyun Mountain in their village, and across the river sits an arched stone bridge that the whole village raised funds to build a few years ago. The lives of people in the village are basically inseparable from this small river. Especially in summer, people in the village like to wash clothes by the river.
That day, Qu Ping let Jiang Mingzhu and Jiang Mingjie watch TV at home as usual, and took Jiang Suichu to wash clothes. The river was very fast in summer and his clothes were accidentally swept away by the water. Jiang Suchu was in a hurry to catch up and accidentally stepped on the moss and slipped and fell into the river.
In fact, the water in the river was not very deep, but Jiang Suchu couldn't swim, so she instinctively struggled in the water, but the more she struggled, the more she sank. Qu Ping on the shore saw Jiang Suichu fall into the water and stood anxiously on the shore calling for help. She lay on the river bank and reached out to pull Jiang Suichu who was struggling in the river.
She was able to hold her back several times, but their hands missed each other again and again.
But she didn't, and only her sharp shouts were heard in the quiet riverside in the evening.
Jiang Minghao sat in the arch of the stone arch bridge, biting a dogtail grass in his mouth and watching all this indifferently.
Looking at the constantly churning river water, Jiang Minghao seemed to see another small figure screaming in the water.
"Brother...brother...brother..."
Her small body was like a leaf in the flood water in midsummer.
It was rolled up, turned down, and quickly disappeared into the mud-colored flood.
The rapid river swept Jiang Suichu farther and farther away from the shore.
More and more people gathered by the river, and Grandma Jiang arrived. She cried and shouted begging them to help and save her. Everyone was talking a lot, some brought fishing nets from home, some held long poles, and chased Jiang Suichu along the river bank, but no one jumped.
They seemed to be saving, but they couldn't.
Just like two years ago.
Seeing that the struggling movements in the water were getting smaller and smaller, Jiang Minghao jumped directly into the river from the bridge hole and swam towards Jiang Suichu.
The water was turbid, and Jiang Suchu accidentally grabbed the pendant around his neck during his desperate struggle, just like a person on the verge of death grabbing the last straw.
After seeing his face clearly, she begged him silently in the water: "Jiang Minghao, help me."
At that time, Jiang Suichu had just been taken back to Muyang Town, and Jiang Minghao was not familiar with her yet. But from that day on, Jiang Suchu was always following him, and he couldn't get rid of him.
Jiang Minghao's expression was bitter and his eyes were looking at something blankly. It took him a long time to get out of his memories.
"That's about all I know." He regained his composure and returned to his usual carelessness.
Lu Zhinian's Adam's apple rolled up and he didn't speak for a long time. Pei Shuo also looked silent, and veins had already popped out in his clenched fists.
Tang Zi glanced at them and thought for a while, not knowing what to say. Tonight's story was too shocking for him, and Jiang Suichu couldn't help but appear in his mind.
Cold and stubborn.
Jiang Minghao threw the cold cigarette butt into the trash can and asked, "What are you going to do with this woman today?"
He was talking about Sun Feifei.
Pei Shuo said: "A Nian has already planned to have the school expel her."
Jiang Minghao glanced at Lu Zhinian, nodded slightly, and said, "Isn't it too easy to just fire her?"
Lu Zhinian looked at him and said calmly: "Sun Feifei takes dance classes in Times Square every Saturday night. Class ends at eight o'clock. But she always ends about an hour early and goes to the bar street next to it."
The two people's eyes collided, and there seemed to be something tacitly understood.
Pei Shuo looked at Lu Zhinian in surprise. He did not expect that Lu Zhinian had already investigated Sun Feifei clearly in less than half a day.
It turned out that he had no intention of letting Sun Feifei go from the beginning.
Jiang Minghao looked at Lu Zhinian, who looked indifferent and distant, and curled his lips, "I'll see you in Times Square at six o'clock tomorrow."
"I'm leaving."
Jiang Minghao looked up at the inpatient building, smiled and turned to leave.
Jiang Suichu, you have someone to accompany you.
This time, I won't care about you.
As soon as Tang Mi walked to the door of the building, she saw Jiang Minghao's back walking out. She carried her schoolbag and wanted to chase him, but before she could catch up a few steps, she saw him reaching out to stop a taxi.
Soon, the taxi merged into the traffic and disappeared in front of the hospital.
Tang Mi stopped, with the lighter he had left lying in her hand.
"Tang Mi"
"Tang Xiaomi."
"Ah~" Tang Mi came back to her senses and looked over blankly.
Tang Zi: "Why are you standing here in a daze? Are you a door god?"
From a distance, he saw her standing here in a daze, and she didn't respond when he called her.
Tang Mi clenched her palms and hid the lighter behind her back. Instead of answering Tang Zi's question, she said, "Aunt Shu Yuan asked the driver to take us home."
"oh."
Tang Zi glanced at her and realized that she was a little strange today. If he said that to her normally, she would definitely jump up and have a quarrel with him.
Tang Zi tugged on her ponytail, "What's wrong with you?"
"It's nothing." Tang Mi didn't look at him, pointed to the car at the door and asked, "Lu Zhinian, is that your car?"
Lu Zhinian glanced at it and nodded.
It's from their family.
"Then let's go first." Tang Mi ignored Tang Zi and walked straight to the car.
Tang Zi clicked his tongue and said to Lu Zhinian and Pei Shuo, "I will go to Times Square with you tomorrow."
After saying that, he jogged to catch up with Tang Mi who had already walked away.
Back in the ward, Shu Yuan had already changed clothes for Jiang Suichu.
Shu Yuan glanced at the two of them and pointed to the dining table in the small living room, "I brought some food. You two should go over and eat some."
It was a chaotic night, and I haven't eaten anything yet.
Lu Zhinian and Pei Shuo sat at the dining table. Both of them were silent, holding chopsticks for a long time without starting to eat.
Shu Yuan hugged a quilt and put it on the sofa, watching the two people sit opposite them.
"Did you learn something from Jiang Minghao?" she asked.
From the moment they walked in, they both kept their faces down and said nothing.
If she could think of finding Jiang Minghao, they would definitely do the same.
Pei Shuo turned to look at Lu Zhinian. Lu Zhinian put the chopsticks in his hand on the transparent coffee table, then rested his elbows on his thighs and rubbed his face weakly with both hands.
He endured the stinging pain in his heart and roughly repeated to Shu Yuan what he knew from Jiang Minghao.
After listening to Lu Zhinian's words, Shu Yuan burst into tears.
"Aunt Yuan." Pei Shuo took out some tissues and handed them to her.
Shu Yuan took it, wiped the tears from her face, looked at the two of them, and said, "A Nian Shuoshuo, we will handle the matter every year, you two don't have to worry about it."
She knew the two of them well and was afraid that they would act out of their own will.
"But we..." Pei Shuo wanted to say something, but Lu Zhinian stopped him.
Lu Zhinian looked at him and narrowed his eyes slightly, signaling him not to speak.
"Mom, don't worry. We know what to do."
He would quietly beat that person to death in the mud.
