Time Passed Us By - Chapter 14

Dishes were served one by one. Song Jianan tried her best to control the urge to eat a lot and acted like a lady. Song Ruizhen, who was standing next to her, was not idle. She didn’t even say a word and just focused on eating.

Xi Luoyu was not at the same table with them. He was dragged to accompany others for drinks. When Song Jianan went out, she happened to meet him. He was leaning against the window sill in the corridor, his side profile looking at something. His usually clear eyes seemed to be covered with a layer of mist that could not be seen clearly. His eyebrows and eyes were hidden behind the gold-rimmed glasses. Song Jianan subconsciously looked at him twice more. He also looked back, his eyes reflecting a lazy but arrogant brilliance that flashed away.

He waved at her, and Song Jianan walked over without hesitation. Just as she was about to ask what he was doing here, she heard the sound of water outside the window. She looked down curiously, “Oh, so this is a hotel by the river, you can see the Yangtze River!”

“Yeah, you just realized?” Xi Luoyu opened the window, and a gust of cold wind rushed in. Song Jianan immediately felt a refreshing feeling and the faint dampness of the tide, which caressed her face. Because of the catalyst of the wine, her cheeks were slightly hot, but it was relieved a lot. She turned her head to look at Xi Luoyu again, and was surprised, “You don’t look like you with your glasses off.” 

Xi Luoyu asked with interest, shaking the glasses in his hand, “What do I look like?”

 “A person,” Song Jianan said expressionlessly, “What a cold joke.” 

He didn’t speak, holding the glasses in his hand, as if he was looking at something, but he didn’t seem to care about anything. The wind was strong in the autumn night, rolling up the river waves, and the tide rolled towards the shore. It seemed to be just the ebb and flow, but it was turbulent and cold. There were fishing boats in the middle of the river, and the faint lights moved slowly in the dark night, like a ghost.

Xi Luoyu seemed to have drunk a lot, and his eyes were a little scattered, but he stared at the river. Song Jianan’s heart moved, this kind of posture was like that of a certain person.

Maybe they all have that kind of cold and alienated attitude in their bones, so they will unconsciously get close to nature. 

In order to ease the somewhat boring atmosphere, Song Jianan said, “Are you my grandfather’s student?”

“Mm, I studied for my undergraduate degree here, and went to another place for graduate school.”

She smiled, “Is my grandfather strict? Don’t look at his smiling face now. I was afraid of him when I was a child.”

“Strict, but he teaches very well. Many students who don’t study law come to attend the class. Let me give you his two classic examples. A is thirsty and entrusts B to buy water. The agreed unit price cannot exceed 3 yuan, but it is not clear how many bottles to buy. B bought 100 bottles of water from the canteen at a unit price of 2.5 yuan. A was not thirsty at the time because he had no money in his pocket.”

“Huh?”

“This is called unclear agency terms. Also during the last six months of litigation, A, one day, went out to file a lawsuit. When he opened the door, he found that there was a flood and the court was washed away by the flood. One day, still before the last six months of the lawsuit, A was ready to sue. He fell into a pit as soon as he went out. He didn’t climb out until one day in the six months. “

“What is this?”

“This is called the suspension of the statute of limitations.”

Song Jianan was about to sigh that it was a pity that she didn’t become a grandfather’s student, but Xi Luoyu spoke before her, “In fact, I didn’t like law very much. I planned to transfer to the Department of Economics and Management in my sophomore year.”

She was a little surprised. After a while, she could only think to ask why, but she held back stiffly. Since he didn’t continue, why should she force him? Besides, she was not curious. 

Xi Luoyu wore his glasses and closed the window. In an instant, he seemed to have regained his shrewd look. “Let’s go. It’s not good to be exposed to the wind at night. It’s easy to catch a cold.” 

After the banquet, she took a taxi back. The report of the weekend entertainment edition of Jingshengjingshi was not finished yet. She searched the internet for reports and reviews of the newly released “Curse of the Golden Flower” and slowly began to polish the words.

Maybe she drank a little too much, and Song Jianan felt dizzy and had difficulty in choosing the words and sentences. Suddenly, her cell phone rang. She saw that it was Xi Luoyu. She felt a little strange. She picked up the phone. There was a lot of noise coming from the other side, but his voice was particularly quiet in the hustle and bustle. He asked, “Are you home?”

Song Jianan chuckled, “Well, how about you guys? Where did you go with your senior colleagues?”

As soon as she said it, she felt that her tone was a little strange. It didn’t sound like a question between friends. The casual and joking tone was clearly only between lovers. She was shocked by her own understanding and her mind immediately became much clearer, Xi Luoyu smiled, “Nowhere, we’re just singing karaoke at the Avenue of Stars.”

She said “Oh”, feeling speechless, but Xi Luoyu did not freeze, “By the way, I heard you’re going on a business trip tomorrow afternoon, so I won’t go to see you off, have a safe journey.”

“Oh, you don’t have to see me off, it’s not like I won’t be back, it’s just three days, by the way, I remembered that I said I’d treat you to tomato hotpot last time, but I forgot about it, wait until I come back.”

Xi Luoyu pretended to be surprised, “Oh, you finally remembered this, it seems that my call wasn’t in vain.”

Someone called Xi Luoyu’s name, and she smiled, “I won’t talk to you right now, go have fun. I still have to finish up a draft that’s due tomorrow morning.”

As if he wanted to talk more, he followed up and asked, “Finish what draft?”

“I haven’t read the publicity and reviews of Curse of the Golden Flower. I just wrote it randomly.” Song Jianan answered honestly, “Don’t laugh at me if it appears in the newspaper tomorrow.” 

“I’ve seen it, and it was a ticket to the Workers’ Cinema. You don’t like watching movies?” 

“I would rather download the movie at home and watch it slowly. I rarely go to the cinema.”

The noise over there suddenly became louder, as if the door of the private room was opened, and a familiar song came out, “Ten years before, I didn’t know you, you didn’t belong to me, we were still with a stranger, walking through the gradually familiar streets. “

The sudden singing interrupted their conversation, which seemed to last for half a minute. Xi Luoyu’s voice came out, but he didn’t know if Song Jianan didn’t listen attentively or if the signal was too poor. She only vaguely recognized that he said, “Actually, the cinema needs two people to go. I’ll treat you to a movie when you come back.”

His voice was very low, and the tone seemed to blend with the sad song, soft, tough but desolate. Song Jianan didn’t know how to answer. The mobile phone screen lit up, indicating that the battery was low and turned off.

She breathed a sigh of relief, and there was a little clue in her heart.

The flight was at 4 pm, and the journey took less than two hours. Editor-in-chief Zhang who went with her was a well-qualified strong woman who was much older than her. Song Jianan was not familiar with her, and the conversation was just about work and interview matters.

The hotel they booked was a five-star chain hotel. Song Jianan kept sighing that the newspaper was so rich that they could take taxis and stay in five-star hotels. It turned out that the status of entertainment reporters could be so high.

After talking to Xu Yan on the phone, Song Jianan tidied herself up and sat on the sofa in the lobby waiting for Xu Yan to pick her up. Not long after, when she was about to fall asleep, someone patted her face, and couldn’t hide the smile in the soft voice, “Jianan, wake up, be careful not to sleep into a pancake face.”

She was startled all of a sudden, and a pair of large sunglasses came into her eyes. A pair of phoenix eyes blinked cunningly behind the lenses, and the bright red lips were slightly upturned. Song Jianan turned her face and smiled, “Xu Yan, I still think you look like an orangutan when wearing sunglasses.”

“How can I do that? I’m a public figure.” Xu Yan curled her lips and shook the car keys in her hand. “I don’t need to use sunglasses to cover my real face in real life. I’m afraid that my fans are too many and too crazy. If they come out and you are in the sea of ​​people, it will be a big blow to the alumni. What are you doing here? Let’s go. I’ll treat you to a meal.”

“Tsk, you’re just a TV host. By the way, what other activities are there besides eating?”

“Oh, you’ve learned to be corrupt after working in the newspaper for a few years. The nightlife team has inevitably grown.” Xu Yan turned to look at her and rolled her eyes. “Come on, let’s combine the form of eating and the form of activities by entertainment. Let’s climb Baiyun Mountain and eat along the way.”

“Ah——”

Guangzhou is still the same as Song Jianan remembered, with prosperity and desolation. The viaducts built everywhere make this originally large city not have a broad view, but a sense of depression.

The night slowly fell in front of her eyes, the glimmer in the sky slowly shrank, turned into a circle of white halo, and then the night came overwhelmingly, the surrounding street lights lit up one by one, and the neon lights and incandescent lights on the tall buildings complemented each other.

Walking up from the side door of Baiyun Mountain, there was a snack shop not far away. The owner is from Chaoshan and speaks to them in Cantonese. Song Jianan can understand but can’t speak. It’s just that familiar tone that makes her unable to adapt to it all of a sudden. She can only watch Xu Yan skillfully ordering dishes in a daze. She sighed, “I really don’t belong here.”

Xu Yan raised her head, “I ordered Baiyun pig’s trotters. Do you want stir-fried rice noodles or regular rice noodles?”

“Stir-fried rice noodles, is there any honey barbecued pork sausage, and get me a cup of mung bean and kelp soup first.”

A suspicious look came over, “Song Jianan, except for your stomach, nothing else belongs here.”

It was eight o’clock when we had enough to eat and drink. There were not many people on Baiyun Mountain. There were a few tour groups, most of which were for night tours of Baiyun Mountain. There were dense trees all the way up, and some ancient pavilions, with lights buried deep in small corners. Song Jianan looked up through the gaps in the leaves. The sky was dark blue, and there was a plane flying by. The lights on the wings kept flashing, moving slowly in the air, taking off or landing.

The higher they climbed, the colder it got. Song Jianan was wearing a lot of clothes, but she could still feel the chill. Xu Yan was wearing even less. She was about to ask if they were going back, but Xu Yan turned around and said slowly, “Jianan, do you still remember the last time we climbed Baiyun Mountain in our senior year?”

How could she forget? She would never forget it. She was stunned for a moment, then nodded. Xu Yan smiled and said, “At that time, you were standing on the top of Baiyun Mountain, and we both shouted a name that belonged only to us. I really miss it when I think about it.”

The memory suddenly jumped out, as if it had not been the curtain of control, the mess on the stage was all displayed in front of the audience full of longing. She didn’t have time to think about it, and she had already muttered to herself, “I remember, I always remember.”

After walking a few steps forward, it was the top of Baiyun Mountain. Xu Yan stood on the high steps, clasped her hands, and shouted, “Xu Bowen, Xu Bowen…”

She was a soft woman, but her voice broke through the silent night sky like a bamboo shoot. The air seemed to be rippling with sound waves, tumbling layer by layer, passing through the dense woods, and frantically looking for an exit like a trapped beast. The whole mountain slowly accommodated such a voice and finally disappeared.

She was already in tears.

Everything seemed to be a replica of the summer night in 2004.

It’s just that the person Xu Yan mentioned is no longer the original one, and in past events, every word and every sound is full of memories.

Those scars from having a secret crush, the regrets that have not been resolved, looking back suddenly, it turns out that a hundred years have passed.

Time seemed to flow, his cold and indifferent eyebrows, his calm and peaceful voice on the phone, her love quietly, tightly entangled, more intense than the sunshine in midsummer, this entanglement lasted for so many years, until he said, I want to see you, she realized that it turned out that she was too deeply involved in the play, and she had to go from illusion to reality.

For so many years, she could only stand on this dark mountaintop, watching him fly, dance, sing, and show off.

Standing on this dark mountain top again, at this peak that could reach the sky, her eyes were foggy, as if she had used up all her strength to call out his name loudly to the person she could never confess to, “Su Li, Su Li…”

She finally understood that he and she, and time, passed by each other.