Chapter 95
AFTER THAT NIGHT, Jiang Cheng’s heart calmed like water after a storm.
He didn’t try to find out what had happened to Li Hui, but around here, news of anything tended to permeate efficiently and thoroughly. Whether it was Gu Fei’s family’s store or the community clinic next to it, they were all transfer hubs for critical intel.
Initially, the rumor was that the eldest Li son, along with his whole family, had been beaten to death. This was later debunked by another source that said, no, their children had survived. Later still, someone corrected that claim and said that Li Hui was the only one who’d died.
The causes of death were varied and illustrious, the two most popular of which were that he owed money to loan sharks and was beaten to death by the debt collectors, or that he was murdered by a man who’d cuckolded him.
However, not even a week later, another “truth” came to light: Li Hui was not dead, but he had been beaten into a vegetative state, and the perpetrators were still at large.
Jiang Cheng didn’t know the full extent of these debates. Gu Fei never brought it up with him; Jiang Cheng only knew the bits and pieces he overheard at Gu Fei’s store, and the sources of information always knew to cut themselves off when they spotted him.
In Jiang Cheng’s mind, the rumors no longer mattered, no matter what they were. This person, who happened to be one of his closest blood relations, would never cross his path again in the days to come.
Jiang Cheng changed the phone number that he’d been using for years, and with that change, Li Hui was not the only person who disappeared from his life.
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As the temperature dropped day after day, the leaves on the trees grew sparse. In the days when the dry, chilly air made one’s nose itch and brought on uncontrollable drowsiness, the seniors of Fourth High were finally feeling the appropriate pre-exam pressure.
The walls of the corridors and classrooms were plastered with banners bearing all sorts of motivating slogans: black writing on red backdrops and black writing on white backdrops, all with giant exclamation marks. Jiang Cheng found himself chanting along in his mind every time he saw them. Apart from the banners, plenty of reminders about the imminent exams were hung around the school and written on blackboards:
We’re running out of time!
University entrance exams are almost here!
Yes! It’s right up ahead!
…Pretty scary stuff.
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In general, though, time actually seemed to pass rather slowly. It was only when you looked back that you realized with a start how far you’d come.
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Jiang Cheng was half slumped over his desk and twirling a pen between his fingers, looking at the math teacher around the obstacle of Zhou Jing’s ear. For some reason, his classmate was sitting ramrod straight today.
To almost everyone else in his class, time must’ve been crawling along at a snail’s pace. Perhaps when they looked back this time next year, they’d be shocked to realize how quickly their senior year of high school flew by—so quickly that it barely left behind any memories.
Even right now, Jiang Cheng didn’t feel like the minutes were dragging. In fact, he felt that time was flying by much too fast, and he didn’t have enough of it.
Not enough time to memorize passages.
Not enough time to go through question banks.
Not enough time to listen to lectures.
Not enough time to go for walks with his boyfriend.
Not enough time to look at the new photos that said boyfriend had taken.
Not enough time…to check out his little sister-in-law’s new hairstyle.
Hmm…
When he looked back on it this time next year—no, whenever, whether it was next year, the year after that, five years later, even ten years later—whenever he looked back, the memories of this year would always be rich and fulfilling.