C118

Peng Haobai and I went to England. After settling down the ninety-nine matters, he and I set out on a long journey.

I wanted so desperately to stay and prove myself, but the truth gave me a resounding slap in the face that made me run away, and I thought that one day, I would come back and become the person I wanted to be.

Peng Haobai and I are no exception.

Occasionally I would sit by the Taihe River, not far from our school, watching the tide rise and fall, my mind at peace.

That's what I want to feel.

I began to keep my travels and books in sync.

Cultivating the body and nurturing the mind.

Peng Haobai has always been with me and he's extremely smart. Even though he always follows me out of class to look at the mountains and rivers and seas, his results are always among the best in the class.

Peng Haobai would occasionally pinch my cheek and smack his lips together, as if he was disappointed.

"You're talking about you, you're already the mother of a child, and you still haven't taken any classes at all."

"I'm just looking for the most comfortable way of life."

I continued, "Master Student Ba, you don't have to follow me. You'll be a person who does great things in the future. As for me, I've already decided not to give myself too much pressure. I'll let everything happen naturally, so I don't need to put my life on the line like you did."

I think, my previous decades have been too bitter, now, I want to relax.

Actually, if he didn't give himself too much pressure, he would be able to reap even more benefits.

I can understand this logic, but it was during the holiday last year, when Peng Haobai was bringing me to see the night scenery of Venice, he suddenly figured it out.

Everything in this world followed the cycle of karma. Forcing change would not end well. It would be better to let nature take its course and do what it was supposed to do.

As for the rest, he would leave it to the good news and the bad news to decide.

"I was just afraid that something might happen to you if you ran off by yourself." Peng Haobai said, "You idiot, if something were to happen, what would Jiu Jiu and I do?"

At this point, he would even take out a tissue to wipe his tears.

No matter how many years had passed, this fellow's dishonest image had always been the same as the one he'd seen in the Treant High School.

He always put himself in the position of his father in the ninth heaven. At first, I would call him shameless, but as time went by, I didn't feel like talking about it anymore.

So far, after hearing this, I've gotten used to it.

I've been in England for seven years. Accepting the local customs and practices, changing the seasons here, and enjoying the peace and quiet here and there.

Those, the past all, can only stop in the memory become my dearest nostalgia.

In the past, although the Mu City was a coastal city, the number of times I saw the sea could be counted on one hand. When she was young, she liked to use the bottom of a plastic bottle filled with water to cover her ears, pretending that it was the sound of a sea wave.

After Peng Haobai and I arrived in England, we were staying in a quiet villa by the sea. To be precise, it was not the sea, but a river, but it looked like the sea, because on the other side of the river was St. Andrews.

I always sit on the bank of the river, people coming and going from the boats, the unloading workers, the tourists, the horizon on the other side, the sunset and the dusk.

I was still trying to walk out to the Tai River, which was not far from the villa while carrying Peng Haobai and his overcoat, at 4: 30 in the middle of the night, when it was still winter and the sky was still dark. Occasionally there were swans, one or two of them, floating quietly by the river. There was no one around, just me and the sky, the land and the river, the swans and the thoughts.

Then there would be seagulls, calling out as they crossed the horizon, breaking a few cracks in the quiet night at five or six in the morning.

I don't like rock and roll anymore, the kind of thing that was crazy and addicted to my adolescence. I've changed all the music on my phone so far, and I like quiet, story-filled music.

Whenever a certain melody sounded, there would always be a certain memory that matched up with it. The memory would then follow and be imprinted in his mind, vivid and lifelike.

Occasionally I would cry, occasionally I would laugh, occasionally I would be sad, occasionally I would be heartbroken.

This only happens when I listen to music. As long as the music stops and I stop thinking about it, my thoughts can return to normal.

I thought I could forget everything, but only music reminded me of my truest self.

Wake up my heart indelible pain.

Even after nearly seven years of living here, walking down the street and seeing blond hair and blue eyes, most of them still felt strange.

I was just about to go to school to look for Peng Haobai.

I stopped in front of a red light and stared into the distance. The lazy female voice in the headset sang, "l'llllllfindaway, toseeyougain, toseeyougain." It was only when I saw the crowd moving forward that I realized the green light had come on and was about to move on.

"I've always tried to find a way to meet you, to meet you."

The female voice in the headset sang it over and over.

I want to go home.

I'd love to have a ninety-nine.

During the graduation ceremony, Peng Haobai had graduated first in the whole year and was awarded a medal by the principal. After so many years, the first Chinese person in this school received a medal from the principal.

It's an honor.

After the party, I told him I thought it was time for me to go home.

He said yes.

He immediately got a secretary to book a plane ticket for next week.

No matter how much time passes, Peng Haobai will always treat my matter as a top priority. As usual.

Before we left, Peng Haobai and I went to the southernmost corner of the continent. When we arrived near dusk, I saw that the end of the island seemed to be extending towards the distance with all its might. However, in the end, it did not merge with the sea, only leaving behind a tall cliff.

Peng Haobai patted my shoulder and asked me if I want to climb up to take a look.

I nodded vigorously.

We sat gingerly on the edge of the cliff, not daring to look down. The cliff was thirty or forty stories high, and before us were endless ripples and the sea. Mist rose around us, and the light from the lighthouse shone into the boundless blue.

Eternity.

Peng Haobai suddenly hugged me gently and let my head rest on his shoulder. We leaned against each other and looked at the sea level not far away, watched the rising and falling of the tide, watched everything that happened.

At night, the stars flowed as if they were smoothing a beach. Looking around, the sea had gently smoothed out life.

As for me, my originally messy life, under Peng Haobai's gentle caress, finally settled down bit by bit.

That day, Peng Haobai proposed to me.

Hmm... Counting this time, he had asked for it more than thirty times already.

In these seven years.

He was the only one who didn't drink during the festivals, and when we were alone, he would ask for a marriage.

But I never wore that wedding ring.

According to him. That was: "Try it a few more times. If one day you agree to it, you might not necessarily succeed."

He really didn't know if he should call Peng Haobai foolish or just die like that.

What should I say? For a city like England, although I've been here for seven years, I don't have any feelings for her. I think about her the most before I leave.

"I need to go back and eat two months of dry mother's rice!"

When he returned home, the ground was littered with fallen leaves. The streets were already looking like it was the end of autumn and the beginning of winter.

Mu City already felt very cold.

The first thing I did when I returned was go to the orphanage and check up on 99. After so many years, it was the same every time I returned.

The Conor Orphanage had never changed, except for the paint on the iron gates, which was almost peeling clean and stained with rust.

Inside the courtyard wall, vines were crawling up along the walls, slowly, they were not even able to get through to the light anymore. It was time to prune the flowers and grass, when there was time, Peng Haobai would inform the Principal.

It was dark in the corridor, and the children were taking a nap.

The ninety-nine rooms were different from the other children's rooms. The dean always said that children the same age as them liked to watch cartoons and toy cars.

As for 99, he always liked to stay in his room and read books. It was not a comic book, but a financial, economic, subprime crisis, business, or national affairs that even the nurses in the hospital could not understand.

Yet he could sit and watch the whole afternoon without moving.

It was the same with television, and he took it especially seriously only when he was watching news or financial interviews.

The dean was extremely worried, because this child was different from the others. He didn't even like to talk and chat.

And I wasn't too worried, because I knew why he was like that.

As I bent down to collect the books on the floor, I heard the dean following behind me say, "You like 99 so much. Why did you never think of taking him in? "He's still young now, but if he were a little bigger, he wouldn't be so intimate when he's raised."

I straightened up and looked through the door. The small beds were lined up in rows.

He shook his head.

"I just graduated, so I'm not qualified to raise a child yet."

"Miss Lu, you are truly kind." The dean followed me and cleaned up the room. "The orphanage has been indebted to you for all these years."

All these years abroad, my annual scholarships, or the money I earned from doing projects, will be donated to the orphanage.

It had been for seven years.

In the eyes of the dean, I was probably the kind of adult who especially liked children. When I was free, I would volunteer at the orphanage, and like other ordinary volunteers, I would clean the yard, take the kids to class, and play with them.

A wind was blowing outside the window. The sound of the window being blown could be heard from the corridor. The dean ran out to close the door while I followed.

At the end of the corridor, a small television with no more than a dozen screens would be hung during the day, broadcasting the most recent news.

Caught off guard, I saw the name Mu Huainan.

Over the years, I have consciously or unconsciously avoided this name. I don't watch much TV, and I try to avoid all the news about him on the Internet.

However …

No one would be able to withstand the onslaught of a storm.

This day was no different from any other.

The wind was blowing outside, but I couldn't laugh.

On the television, there were barely any words, saying that there was some conflict between the surging groups in Peng Family and Mu Huainan's company. Everyone was guessing, if they remembered the resentment they had accumulated over the years, would it suddenly explode?

I heard the gist of it and quickly averted my eyes.

I'm still not fully prepared. Be prepared to face all of this.