In the middle of the first month of the new year, Nancheng enters the deep winter.
Tang Yuanyuan's first semester of high school life finally came to an end. After cramming to successfully cope with the final exam, she ushered in her first winter vacation since high school.
The Chinese New Year is earlier this year, so the school has been very generous in adjusting the winter vacation time. Although this does not mean that the winter vacation time will be extended, for most middle school students who are still in the mentally immature age group, it is better to have an early vacation. It is just a happy event. As for the debt that needs to be repaid later, I will leave it to myself to worry about later.
Holidays are a great thing for students, especially for Tang Yuanyuan. After enduring the torturous final exams, the long holiday means that she no longer has to get up early for school every day, nor does she need to study on her own. Going home very late gives her plenty of time to do the things she likes.
Although Tang Yuanyuan is actually not the kind of person who studies very rigidly and studies seriously when staying in school, and even belongs to the type of person who is more carefree in class, logically speaking, there should not be much pressure in school. But it turns out that for her, staying in school itself is a constraint - a constraint on her free and undisciplined nature.
After all, the school itself is a place with many rules, and she doesn't like people who follow the rules very much. But if you don't follow the school rules too much, you will get into trouble. And she was a teacher in various subjects for various special reasons. In her eyes, she already looks like a troublesome student. If her grades weren't good, she would probably be the kind of student who would be invited into the office for tea by the teacher every two days.
But it's different after a holiday. At least for Tang Yuanyuan, the holiday is full of the flavor of freedom just like releasing birds back into the forest and fish back into the sea...
So on the day of the holiday, from the moment she finished the last subject in the morning, she felt as if she was a freed sparrow.
On the official day of the winter vacation, the school was also very lively. When the official break was at noon, students were walking out of the teaching building one after another. No matter where they went, they could see the happy smiling faces of the students, boys and girls. They gathered in groups of two and a half and walked out of the school gates in groups. The day students chattered about the first dinner party of the holiday and the location of the first blackout. The boarding students dragged their big suitcases and smiled and waved to each other. Saying goodbye and saying goodbye next year, there is almost a constant flow of people at the entrance and exit of every school gate.
Tang Yuanyuan was lying by the window of the classroom, looking out the window at the classes on campus that had finished their class meetings early and showing a feeling of envy. Time passed like this, and finally after listening to the class teacher's words countless times, his ears started to prick. After learning the precautions of cocoon, she waited for the long-awaited official end of school.
She carried her schoolbag and almost walked out of the school gate with Gu Yuan, humming a tune.
The first day of winter vacation had just ended at noon. Tang Yuanyuan was not in a hurry to go home because she had already planned yesterday that she would definitely wander around outside before going home on the first day of vacation. She had notified Lao Chen in advance. Don't come pick yourself up.
So she dragged Gu Yuan with her to the commercial district not far from the school, saying "I'll be happy to have a cup of hot milk tea on the first day of the holiday" and walked into a milk tea shop where they used to go.
Although Gu Yuan was not really a person who liked liveliness and wandering on the street, since he was accompanying Tang Yuanyuan, he had no objection.
So the two of them sat in a milk tea shop at the first stop after school. Tang Yuanyuan ordered a cup of fresh fruit tea with milk, and Gu Yuan ordered a cup of hot coffee. They sat together in the shop facing the floor-to-ceiling glass. By the window, I was chatting while looking at the crowds of people passing by on the street outside the store.
After they chatted about a lot of topics and fell into a brief silence, Gu Yuan sat next to her and suddenly let out a sigh.
"It's been a while since we sat together in this store."
As he said that, his eyes fell on the passers-by. Tang Yuanyuan nodded in response when he heard what he said and echoed:
"After all, high school life is more stressful than before... Now we have less time to go out of school."
Gu Yuan turned his head slightly when he heard her words, his eyes fell on her and said:
"Yes, and you seem to be quite busy recently."
Hearing his words, Tang Yuanyuan felt a little guilty for no reason. She laughed dryly and asked, "Huh? Where is it? I haven't found anything new to do for myself... I've only been busy lately. It’s for the end of term.”
"You are not the type to put so much thought into your studies. If you were really so concerned, then this time you would be ranked in the top three instead of the top ten."
Gu Yuan casually took a sip of the coffee in his hand, exposing her poor excuse.
Tang Yuanyuan smiled slightly awkwardly again, waved his hands and said:
"Oh, Master Gu thinks highly of me too much."
As she spoke, she took a sip of the drink, lowered her eyes to her own cup, and sighed softly in her heart.
She knew what Gu Yuan's words meant, because she had spent less time with Gu Yuan recently, so he said such words.
She and Gu Yuan were childhood sweethearts, and Gu Yuan was almost the only true friend she could trust. Most of the time in the past, when she was free, she would ask Gu Yuan if she needed company for anything she did. And if Gu Yuan had no other She rarely refuses her proposals, so in fact they often meet or stay together during holidays and the like.
However, since some time ago, or even since she met Yi Huai and Zhen, the time she and Gu Yuan spend together in their free time has almost been drastically reduced.
Because they joined different departments in the school, they rarely spent time together outside of class. The only time they could get along was occasional chats after class and morning and evening school breaks, not to mention holidays. After high school, Gu Yuan needs to learn more skills and deal with a lot of things, and he also has other friends. Tang Yuanyuan always feels that he can't always bother him with his little things, so he rarely goes to see him as he did before. he.
And it is true that because of the company of Yi Huai and Zhen, Tang Yuanyuan no longer feels that being alone is boring and lonely as before, so in addition to going out, she has also reduced the frequency of occasionally asking Gu Yuan to come to her home to play in the past. ——On the one hand, it is to prevent him from finding out that Yi Huai lives in his home, and on the other hand, it is also to avoid disturbing the other person's life as much as possible.
After all, ever since the incident with the school ghost, Tang Yuanyuan has clearly known that she has been targeted by some dangerous guy, and the other person seems to be the type who will do whatever it takes to achieve the goal. From now on, she may encounter The ghost-related incidents you encounter will be more dangerous, and may also involve people close to you.
So she thought maybe it would be better to take this opportunity to keep a little distance from Gu Yuan...
While she was thinking this, she lamented that Gu Yuan was still keen. He would say that because he had noticed her deliberate alienation. Although she knew that the other party might feel uncomfortable because of this, she had no better choice for the moment.
But keeping a little distance doesn't mean that she wants to become completely strangers to Gu Yuan, so she deliberately pulled him out today.
I just didn't expect that Gu Yuan was the one who asked the question first...
"I'm sorry... I'm just a little busy these days." Tang Yuanyuan said, putting his hands on the table to support his face, "I didn't mean to alienate you... It's just something about myself. I haven't found a good solution to your problem yet, and I don't really want to affect you..."
"We are childhood sweethearts." Gu Yuan said, "No matter what problems you encounter, you shouldn't exclude me, right?"
"That being said, I can't turn all my problems into other people's problems, right?" she said, "Some problems can only be solved by myself..."
Gu Yuan was silent for two seconds and asked: "So, I can't help, right?"
Tang Yuanyuan was stunned when he heard this and immediately shook his head like a rattle.
"I didn't say anything like that." She denied, "And I didn't intend to discuss it with you at all, so I pulled you out to sit here today."
When Gu Yuan heard this, he was silent for a few seconds, then showed a helpless smile. Then he pushed up his glasses and asked again:
"So, what plans and plans do you have, right?"
Tang Yuanyuan didn't miss the bitter smile that flashed across his face, but she didn't understand why the other party showed such a look. Do you feel helpless because you still believe and dwell on things that don’t exist? Or does he feel helpless because he can't help him?
She didn't know the answer, so she was silent for a while, and then said:
"This winter vacation, I should go back to my old home."
"A whole winter vacation?" Gu Yuan asked.
"That should be the case," she said, "because the recent troubles seem to be getting more and more difficult, so I want to go back to the old house to find more things left by my grandma."
"And some things may be more suitable to learn in the old house than in the city... I think so. I haven't gone back to live permanently for a long time, so I also want to go back and spend time with grandpa."
Gu Yuan listened to what she said for a while without replying. Tang Yuanyuan glanced at him secretly and choked back what he wanted to ask.
Originally, she wanted to ask Gu Yuan if he would go back to his old house to spend the winter vacation together, because the Tang family's old house and the Gu family's ancestral house were not too far apart, but she knew that Gu Yuan was not actually close to her family. He was close, so she didn't ask this question.
After all, in the past years, he would rather stay here alone or go to her house to celebrate the New Year, and he would not be willing to look back at home for a long time.
There is no hatred between Gu Yuan and his family, but they are definitely not close, because besides him, there is also a much loved younger brother Gu Man. Compared to him, his parents and Gu Man are more like a family.
In the past, every time he went back, he always felt like an outsider who disturbed their happy family, so over time, he became less fond of returning to that so-called home. So whether it was New Years or holidays, he always stayed alone in the house in Nancheng. He moved out to live alone. For him, in addition to being able to accompany Tang Yuanyuan, it was also a way to escape from that family.
After a while, Gu Yuan slowly said:
"I signed up for a winter vacation training class here this winter vacation. I may not go back and stay for the whole winter vacation."
Tang Yuanyuan blinked, knowing that this was his answer, so he nodded.
"Then you have to take care of yourself here alone. How about calling your housekeeper over? But for such a capable person, if I don't stay here, it might save you some trouble."
She laughed as she said that, turned her head and put her face on one hand, sat on the bench and swayed her feet. She looked at Gu Yuan looking down at his cup of coffee, and added after a moment:
"But if you are willing, you can still come back to my house to celebrate the New Year together this year."
"Yeah." Gu Yuan responded softly.
At this point in the conversation, the two fell into a brief silence again, until another wave of people who were late from school passed by outside the window. Looking at the peers wearing different school uniforms, Tang Yuanyuan once again started chatting with interest as usual. There were other topics, but Gu Yuan sat next to her and just listened to what she said, occasionally echoing her words.
After leaving the milk tea shop, she took him out to go shopping in the surrounding business district. They laughed and had fun together as before. The two of them continued shopping until the evening, and then walked home together. .
In the end, they parted ways again at the corner of the stairs going home, but this time they waved and said that when they see each other next time, Gu Yuan looked at the smiling face of the girl he was very familiar with, but for some reason he always felt that after this separation, there was no relationship between them. It will be further and further away...
But he couldn't say what he really wanted to say, because he couldn't see the world that Tang Yuanyuan could see, so he couldn't say the words that he wanted to solve the problem with her.
He knew that it was just his willfulness and wishful thinking. Even if Tang Yuanyuan denied it, he knew that the fact was just as he said, and he could not help her in any way.
Originally, he just thought that if Tang Yuanyuan believed in something, he should believe it, and that would be enough. But just believing that he couldn't actually do anything. He later understood this, but he still could only stand there and watch her back as she walked alone.
It would be great if there was a chance for me to catch up with her.
Gu Yuan watched Tang Yuanyuan's house door close from a distance, but did not turn around for a long time. He just recalled a time a few days ago when he could occasionally see the shadow next to her, but he didn't know if it was a hallucination.
