At this time, only the man and woman sitting facing each other were left on the table. The soup pot in the middle boiled out a stream of white smoke, so that when they looked at each other, their faces looked hazy.
"You really don't want to continue with your movie dream?"
Cao Aiqing took a piece of shiitake mushroom and put it in the dipping bowl, then asked slowly.
Taking advantage of Guo Huai's absence, the conversation between the two became more straightforward.
He Tianran shook his head, "I really don't want to do it anymore. Although what I just said sounds outrageous, they are all my true thoughts. This time, let me do something else..."
When Cao Aiqing heard this, he felt a little embarrassed for a moment.
"To be honest, I can't think of anything else you can do besides making movies and creating creations..."
"Ha~ That's what I said, but think about it, I have been reincarnated several times. Every time I clamored to make a movie, but every time I never made it. In the previous world, when I was admitted to the film school , my dad got in the way and almost didn’t let me pass the exam. He didn’t approve of this in the first place. I still remember the day the exam results were released. I even called you to trick you into failing the exam. Do you remember that?”
"……Remember."
"Now everything has started again, and I have always followed his wishes to attend the University of Hong Kong. Now I am in my third year. If I suddenly mentioned this to him, I would have to work hard to go back. Besides, he is angry now. Alas. , I’m really tired, forget it, it’s good to just lie down like this.”
He Tianran drank a glass of wine by himself.
Cao Aiqing looked at him drinking by himself and said hesitantly:
"Naturally, love and dreams are separate. It's good to be able to be combined together. It's natural that they can't be combined, because they are not the same thing in themselves, so there is no need to lose both..."
He Tianran felt warm in his heart, nodded and said with emotion:
"I understand what you mean, Ai Qing. I studied film and wanted to be a director, and it was never because of Wen Liang. Although she pointed me in a direction, I walked the path myself, including when I used our story to write The matter of the script...
It's just that I finally figured it out. The essence of creation has been put to the point. In fact, I have something to say to the world, but what I should do and what I should say has been said in the process of continuous reincarnation. Now I have nothing to say, so I won’t go back to the old route…
What I need now is to change my perspective and experience something different. "
After the girl listened quietly to what he said, the two of them remained silent as if they had a tacit understanding. They ate the vegetables, and although there was constant noise in their ears, there was a kind of peace between them that outsiders could not give.
"I always thought that making a movie was your other long-cherished wish besides your family. Whether it was revenge or pursuit, after all, you have persisted in such a difficult period..."
The girl's seemingly casual words made He Tianran's chopsticks hover over the hot pot and pause for a moment.
The man retracted his hand and moved his gaze to the side. There was a trace of reminiscence in his eyes. He couldn't help but look around slowly. The car started to turn around on the road, a cigarette was lit not far away, and a friend squatting on the ground talking on the phone. There is the excitement around you and the people in front of you.
He was still eloquent just now, but he couldn't say anything at the moment. He just opened the corner of his mouth and smiled with relief:
"Ha~"
Cao Aiqing did not continue to embarrass him, but raised his glass and congratulated:
"Happy birthday."
He Tianran nodded and raised his glass as well.
"Can we...can we even out the story?"
The girl retracted her hand and looked at him warily. The man immediately changed his words:
"Just today, just one night!"
"Okay, for your birthday's sake, I can satisfy you today, and I'll scare you."
Cao Aiqing smiled, and their wine glasses collided.
A gust of night wind blew by, slightly disrupting the mist of the hot pot between the two of them. He Tianran drank a lot and felt very comfortable.
He raised his eyes and looked at the other party. At this moment, Cao Aiqing's cheeks turned red after drinking a little wine.
Unknowingly, although the faces of the two became clear, their eyes were hazy. Their eyes only lingered for a moment, and they separated involuntarily the next second.
"Ahem...the balls are ready to eat..."
He Tianran coughed lightly.
"Ah, okay..." Cao Aiqing pushed her hair behind her ears and said involuntarily: "How about...eating the cake first? I'll be too full after a while and I won't be able to eat it anymore...I'll help you open it first."
"...Well, thank you."
"Need not……"
Cao Aiqing reached out and took the cake box over and opened the outer seal.
He Tianran looked at her movements and was in a daze. The girl buried her head in dismantling the cake gift box. During this period, she did not raise her head to look at the man, but her movements were very slow, as if she felt the deliberate actions behind his gaze. She seemed to I'm not ready yet, how to face that look...
"I never had time to ask you, did I help you in any way after we met with Uncle Cao last time?"
"……some."
"...Then you went abroad, do you still need my help?"
He Tianran couldn't help but ask, as if he was expressing something tactfully...
However, Cao Aiqing shook his head.
"Of course, I don't have any unpleasant memories during my years abroad. I remember saying that it was the most peaceful period of time for me."
She pushed the disassembled cake between the two of them, took out a candle, lit it with the flame of the charcoal stove, and gently inserted it in the center of the cake.
She stared at the gently swaying candle, and the flames were reflected in the girl's pupils, like incense in front of the Buddha.
She said, "Make a wish."
The girl has a unique look.
But then, the burning core of fire was cynically blown away by the man.
"forget it……"
Cao Aiqing heard these three words in her ears. As the candlelight went out, she finally looked at He Tianran opposite him again. She saw a warm and open-minded smile on the man's face. He looked really... beat!
"What are you doing?"
Cao Aiqing suddenly became a little angry.
"I don't even worship Bodhisattva when I enter a temple. If you ask me to make a wish for my birthday, isn't that nonsense?"
He Tianran smiled.
Cao Aiqing understands this very well. She doesn't know where He Tianran's bad habit comes from, but since it's his birthday, he can celebrate it however he wants. Cao Aiqing doesn't have an attack, so she just frowned and asked:
"Then you don't have any wishes?"
"Will that come true?" He Tianran asked.
"If you didn't, it would definitely not come true."
"That's it..."
He Tianran was not very sure why Cao Aiqing was struggling with this. Maybe it was because he had violated her good intentions. He just blew out the candles carelessly. After all, when something like a "sense of ritual" was going on, it would be a bit embarrassing if he didn't cooperate. .
He joked:
"But instead of making a wish on this six-inch chocolate cake, it would be more practical for me to make a wish to you, a living Bodhisattva."
Cao Aiqing closed his eyes, took a breath, and said coldly:
"Today is your birthday. I don't care if you are joking, but if you want to say something about saving me or fulfilling your long-cherished wish, you can shut up."
"Then...I won't be so ignorant..."
The man picked up a plastic knife, cut the cake into small pieces, put it on a paper plate and handed it over. He continued casually:
"I can't tell you the specific wish, but thanks to you for not making things difficult for me, my life has been peaceful for such a period of time recently. This is something I am very grateful for. Maybe this is my wish all along... …”
Cao Aiqing was silent for a while after hearing this.
"I thought you were going to say you wanted to go back to the past again or something."
He Tianran was stunned.
"Why do you think so?"
Cao Aiqing said slowly:
"Because you have always wanted to fulfill my long-cherished wish, but once I disappear like Wenliang, your world will probably change again. At that time, there will be no me and no Wenliang, and no one in this world will remember what you have done. , so the best way is to return you to the original point with your memories, so that everything will never happen again, and preserve a new world. In this way, at least you can still see some acquaintances in your memories."
"..."
This is undoubtedly a very tempting conjecture, but He Tianran thought about it again and again, shook his head and said in a deep voice:
"This is not my wish, and I don't want to go back to the past..."
"Why?"
"..."
The charcoal stove is hot, and the boiling soup seems to boil the whole street.
The wind and frost in those winter nights seemed to be absorbed into He Tianran's eyes, and when he looked at the fire, only the clarity after the melting of ice and snow was left.
He said: "Because this time, I want to be more ambitious and it's time for me to move forward..."
Ai Qing was suddenly filled with thoughts, his face turned red, his heart pounded, and he suddenly became silent.
"..."
"..."
Is He Tianran drunk?
Is what he said true?
Cao Aiqing's few thoughts flew by, but if she wanted to distinguish them, it might be very simple.
The string of prayer beads that can travel through time is in her bag. This is a gift. As long as she takes it out and puts it in front of him, everything will be answered.
But, she didn't.
Because when this man gradually gets rid of his old age and is determined to move forward wholeheartedly, he should not be told that there is a way out behind him, otherwise, it will look very cruel.
And Cao Aiqing doesn't want to do this test anymore...
"If you can say that, I think I can trust you for once."
The girl gathered her emotions and said this.
He Tianran laughed and said, "Because today is my birthday?"
I originally thought that it would be extremely difficult for Cao Aiqing to believe this. After all, he is a man with a "criminal record". He had already prepared a lot of reasons before he had time to say them. Unexpectedly, the other party was very angry this time. Trusted easily.
Cao Aiqing shook his head, "It's not because of this, it's just that when I went back to school a few days ago, I saw you and Jiang Xixi."
In a daze, He Tianran remembered that three days ago, he had indeed caught a glimpse of Cao Aiqing among the people who stopped to listen to the piano. It turned out that he had seen it right that day...
"Ah, that day... Xixi gave me her piano that day. She said she didn't play the piano anymore, so... we said goodbye." He Tianran said with a smile.
"Why bother? Aren't you ready to start a new life?" Cao Aiqing asked.
"Just because we are starting a new life, we should say a serious farewell to some old people and things."
"..."
Cao Aiqing was speechless.
He Tianran took a bite of the cake and smiled: "I didn't say that I have completely given up. I am just trying to return to the ordinary life of a normal person."
The girl was a little dumbfounded by this statement. She said: "You also know that you were abnormal before? Why don't you tell me what you understand a normal person to be like?"
"You are a living example."
"I?"
He Tianran shrugged:
"At least for most normal people, those who are deeply in love and regret for life should be Xie Jingbumin, right? Because these are too torture and too heavy.
I actually envy you for the way you treat me, Ai Qing.
Ah Liang seems to be a free and easy-going person, but she is too obsessed with her. She showed her face when she met me. She loves me so much, which is a great blessing to me, but it is a burden to her, and she knows that the outcome will be like this. Under such circumstances, I went to fall in love with her, and in exchange for a relief, I would not feel so painful and tired.
This is the biggest difference between you two.
Ah Liang is fake and free and easy, but Ai Qing is really open-minded. Sometimes I think that we become crazy because of love, but our nature is not like this...
So, love when you should love, talk when you should talk, occasionally be reluctant to let go, and sometimes feel sad. This is a normal person. I want to be a normal person and try to live a normal life. "
Seeing that Cao Aiqing remained silent after listening, He Tianran raised his cup and joked:
"What's the matter? I didn't make any vows on my birthday to embarrass the Bodhisattva. Should the Bodhisattva offer me a drink?"
It was a rare occasion for the girl to follow his humor, and she also mentioned wine and smiled:
"It seems that your time in the library was not in vain. It feels like you have realized some truths such as letting go of love, turning back from the sea of suffering, and understanding Lan Yin early."
He Tianran waved his hand and said quickly: "I haven't reached such a big level, but behind the twelve words you said, there is a more famous sentence. I have realized a little bit of that."
Cao Aiqing thought for a while and realized that the twelve words she used as a metaphor came from the opera "Suolin Bag". When talking about the lyrics in it that were more suitable for He Tianran's current situation, the girl opened her mouth and read uncertainly:
"This is what makes this life so unpredictable. Don't you want to be reunited today...?"
Sure enough, now that things have happened, only Cao Aiqing can reveal He Tianran's little literary thoughts.
"Yes, that's right. Looking back at the prosperity is like a dream, and the rest of your life is like a blur~jing~tao~"
This feeling that someone could catch what was in his heart made He Tianran feel happy. At the end, he sang a few lines without a tune, then he collided the wine in the glass with Cao Aiqing's, and drank it happily with his head raised. .
"嘁~"
Cao Aiqing was too lazy to look at the other party's giggling. She turned her head away, but a smile appeared at the corner of her mouth.
"By the way, where is my birthday present?"
He Tianran asked suddenly, and Cao Aiqing rolled his eyes at him.
"No."
"Ah? You bought me a cake, but you didn't prepare a birthday gift?"
"Not prepared!"
Originally there was some, but it seemed that there was no need to give it to him.
"Okay~ba~ It's my fault for looking forward to it."
He Tianran didn't force it. At this time, Guo Huai, who had been talking on the phone, finally came back.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry that I'm back late after taking so long. Have you cut the cake? What were you talking about? I was on the phone just now and saw that you were chatting with gusto."
Bang——
He Tianran poured a bottle of wine directly in front of Guo Huai's eyes.
"After you come back, it would be better to punish you to show off a little bit. Hey, Lao Guo, since you looked at it so carefully, don't you know that we just cut the cake? Which little sister are you talking to on the phone? You've been chatting for so long. !”
Guo Huai quickly explained:
"Oh, it was either a little sister or my mother who called me..."
While Guo Huai was speaking, He Tianran clearly felt Cao Aiqing's shoulders shake, and the expression on his face was a little frozen...
It seems that although Cao Aiqing and Guo Huai have become strangers, the shadow of being bitten by a snake and being afraid of well ropes for ten years is still deeply imprinted in her heart...
Just listen to Guo Huai continue:
"Isn't this a rare opportunity for me to get ahead? A few days ago, I told her the news that I became the student union president. Fortunately, New Year's Day is coming in a few days, and my mother planned to come to HKU to see me. She told me It is not easy to raise a child, so I also want to take this opportunity to take her to visit Hong Kong City and the University of Hong Kong."
It is only natural for others to want to fulfill their filial piety, but at this moment He Tianran could do it, but he could only change the subject, he said:
"Don't say so much first, show off the wine to me first."
"Okay, okay, I accept the punishment, I accept the punishment."
It was obvious that Guo Huai was in a good mood. He picked up the wine bottle and blew it into his mouth. After drinking it for two or three times, he wiped his mouth and said something that made both of the people present unable to hold their nerves:
"What's that? Naturally, Ai Qing, when my mother comes in two days, can you two show up? My mother has always been worried that I will have no friends in school because of my personality, so I have always been with her since high school. Speaking of you two, when she came here this time, she also wanted to thank you for taking care of me all the time, so she just wanted to say a few words."
"I probably won't have time after New Year's Day."
Cao Aiqing was the first to refuse, his tone cold and terrifying.
Guo Huai was a little disappointed when he heard this. He looked at He Tianran and said, "What about you, Tianran? You must have time, right?"
He Tianran first said with a straight face: "What's wrong? I usually look very idle, right?"
"This... definitely doesn't happen." Guo Huai said awkwardly.
He Tianran thought for a while, and he didn't want to make the other party so embarrassed. After all, this filial son did not have the memory of predicting the future like the two of them, and his current intentions were also kind, so He Tianran said:
"Let's see when Auntie comes. If I'm fine, it doesn't matter if I meet her. Let me explain first that I'm not very good at dealing with these elders. I've been quarreling with my father."
When Guo Huai saw his promise and said hello repeatedly, Cao Aiqing glanced at him in surprise.
"Okay, let's not talk about this anymore. Lao Guo, where is my birthday gift?"
When He Tianran changed the topic, Guo Huai completely lost the cleverness of the student council president who could adapt to the changing circumstances. He returned to his honest and honest self, and one word popped out of his mouth:
"ah?"
"What are you talking about? It's a birthday present."
Guo Huai scratched his head and said, "It's not natural...Aren't you happy if I have a heart-to-heart drink with you?"
Geng said this until even He Tianran was confused for a while. After thinking about it, he gritted his teeth and said:
"Oh shit, you're such a big-hearted student council member. You even drank your whole heart and soul with me. I'm so happy. If you don't have a gift, you don't have a gift. You're still doing this with me. Who taught you? Is it yours?"
Guo Huai's eyes were wandering, and Cao Aiqing sighed and held his forehead silently.
When He Tianran saw this scene, he had an idea, and he silently picked up a piece of cake.
"Lao Guo, do you know what I wished for when I blew out the candles just now?"
"what?"
"I hope...we all live like one person in the future!"
He Tianran made a pun, and Cao Aiqing was in a daze for a while. Only Guo Huai didn't know what was going on, but before he could think about it, the cake in He Tianran's hand suddenly slapped him in the face!
Guo Huai, with his chocolate cream face, looked so innocent. He took off the glasses on his face, revealing his eyes that had not been affected by the cake, and said in a funny and helpless way:
"Then what...isn't it usually the one who celebrates birthdays who gets fooled?"
Cao Aiqing reacted much faster than him, and urged: "Don't be stunned, Guo Huai, just mess with him!"
He Tianran had quick hands and quick eyes. He opened his bow from left to right and took the remaining cake in his hand.
"You little bitch are still shouting. Do you really think of yourself as a Bodhisattva? I hope I don't pull you down from the altar today!"
The man stepped forward to bully Cao Aiqing, who was immediately frightened to death. She screamed, no longer caring about her image, closed her eyes, grabbed her share of cake and threw it at He Tianran's face, then stood up and left. Want to run.
Before He Tianran made a move, he was hit with the taste of chocolate, and the color of the chocolate was quite sexy, and it looked like something stuck on his face...
"What the hell...Cao Aiqing, I asked you to buy chocolates!"
In an instant, the person buying the cake was running away, the birthday person was chasing after him, and there was another person whose face was blurred. He took off his glasses and couldn't see anything. He was following at the end and didn't know how to stop him. The middle-aged man in the hot pot restaurant The young people looked at the liveliness of the young people, drank wine, and smiled knowingly.
…
…
That night, He Tianran went back with Guo Huai, who was drunk and unconscious.
This honest man seemed to really want to have a drink with himself and make himself happy.
The weather was very cold at night, and the moon in the sky was covered with a thin layer of fog. The light shining on the road became a lot more distant.
"It looks like it's going to rain tomorrow."
He Tianran raised his head and observed, shook his body, and moved Guo Huai on his back so that he could feel more comfortable carrying him.
"Um……"
Cao Aiqing answered calmly, but the thoughts in her mind kept spinning. Even the overlapping shadows on the ground seemed bright and dark.
"What are you thinking about?" He Tianran, who didn't think he was asking for trouble, asked proactively.
"I was wondering when you would say goodbye to me." Cao Aiqing revealed what he was thinking.
What is she referring to?
This rhetorical question, which was both ambiguous and decisive, made He Tianran feel at a loss.
If she meant saying goodbye on the way back to bed, then it would be like some small feelings between ambiguous men and women; but if she was asking about what He Tianran said before, saying goodbye to the old past seriously, what does that mean? It's completely the other way around.
"I don't know, but there will undoubtedly be a moment. Do you want this moment to be farther away or closer?"
"How close can it be?"
"I can tell you when I get to the door of the dormitory."
"How far can it be?"
"It depends on how long I can live, or how long you can live..."
Cao Aiqing stopped for a moment, shook his head helplessly, and said funny and angrily:
"He Tianran, you are really... very clever. Guo Huai is so drunk on you, aren't you even drunk?"
Brother Tianran burped and said with a smile: "How dare I get drunk in front of you? You have a shadow, and so do I. Besides, I am also an old Riddler. You are playing these things in front of me. This is not in front of Guan Gong. Do you want to play with a big knife?"
Cao Aiqing glared at him.
"It seems that you are not awake anymore. Now that we are gone, you can take Guo Huai back by yourself."
"Don't you want to give me more? It will be here soon!"
"It's coming soon and you still want me to send it away? I'm too lazy to pay attention to you."
After Cao Aiqing finished speaking, she walked forward. He Tianran bumped Guo Huai on his back and followed her.
The girl said she was leaving, but in fact the two of them were only about ten meters apart. When they passed the Shuanggang Apartment, He Tianran shouted and went in. The girl who had been walking in front did not look back, but her steps were a little faster. point.
After going up to the apartment building, after He Tianran carried Guo Huai back to his room to settle down, he returned to his dormitory, took a shower and lay on the bed. Almost half an hour passed.
Picking up the phone and looking at it, He Tianran received a lot of blessing messages because of his birthday. Some were from his classmates, some from library colleagues like Yao Qingtao, others like Wang Ma, Bai Wenyu, Tao Wei, and even He Tianran. There are family members like Yuan Chong, but He Panshan alone does not.
He focused on the message sent by his mother. Without the family dinner, Bai Wenyu's message seemed more serious. As for Tao Wei, the stepmother, she was more trying to persuade him about his relationship with his family.
Since the last time he made his attitude towards his family completely clear in front of He Panshan, Tao Wei has been working hard on this aspect. But the strange thing is that his own mother has not mentioned a word about this matter. Logically speaking, Bai Wenyu and Wang Ma were so close, so they shouldn't have known about it. It seems that either He Panshan sealed the family members' mouths, or Bai Wenyu pretended not to know.
No longer thinking about these bad things, He Tianran covered himself with the quilt, put down his phone and prepared to go to sleep. But he was so lucky that the phone vibrated several times as soon as he put it down.
Reluctantly, he picked it up and looked at it again. It turned out to be from Cao Aiqing, and the content was a poem...
He Tianran looked at it and couldn't help but sit up from the bed. He turned on the night light on the computer desk, found half a pack of cigarettes abandoned in the corner for a long time, and silently lit them.
Azure Sky: "When did you fill in the lyrics?"
Orange Sea: "Just now, it was my birthday gift to you."
Azure Sky: "Thank you, I...I don't know what to say..."
Orange Sea: "If you don't know what to say, don't say it. I'm going to bed. You should also go to bed early and don't come back."
The general meaning of that poem, if you don't know He Tianran's experience, probably won't understand the meaning contained in it. Although Cao Aiqing has already said not to return, He Tianran still replied:
"Thank you, I like it very much, I really like it..."
Message sent, no reply.
In the middle of the night on the day when he was twenty-one, the man named He Tianran looked at his mobile phone for a long time. Between the lines, he related to himself, feeling sad and silent...
I saw the word in the chat box written like this——
"Partridge Tianhe Natural
The anxious scenery is only suitable for autumn in the withered year, and the sad wind and the lingering sound are hard to study.
The young man was about to go down to the heavy building, but he messed with the world and had to start all over again.
Outside Lingding, in the middle of the road, half of the heartless world is sad.
But pity that the night has been so long, I also wish that Tian Tian was completely free. "
(: No need to use Baidu. Sao Sao wrote the words himself, using a new rhyme. The words "lou" and "cong" are not flat, but I won't change them. I used two sentences. The literary talent is not good, and the rhyme is not good. Young general, if you want to fight, you are right.)
