The Fading Away of Our Youth (So Young) Vol 2 Chapter 13.1

Chapter 13, 1/2

Zheng Wei made a call very quickly, she didn’t even think about what he might be doing now, and whether or not he would come. While she was waiting, she couldn’t stomach to overturns of her stomach, and she struggle to walk over to a nearby tree and vomited under it. Her burning throat and turning stomach made her suffer a cold sweat for a  moment. She wished that if she were actually drunk, why not be throughly drunk. Then there wouldn’t be any meaning, and the she wouldn’t be able to feel the pain.

However, after she finished vomiting, the cold sweat was gone, leaving only a cool feeling behind. After her mind cleared, her head still felt heavy and full of lead. She remembered a very important question, on the phone she had only said that she was at G University, but G University was so huge, where would he go looking for her?

Zheng Wei cursed at herself, and after sitting down, she pulled out her cellphone, and found the number that she had just called. When she pressed down she hesitated once again, she disconnected in a fl.u.s.ter. Maybe she shouldn’t have looked for him in the first place. She sat back down at the original place for a while; maybe it wasn’t necessarily impossible to return.

It gradually became later and later into the night, and the time for the University to shut off the lights pa.s.sed, and the couple on the court also each returned back to their respective dorms. Only she was left in the dark of night of the basketball court — the basketball court with only her, it was really quiet. She was completely unafraid or worried, probably from the alcohol. All she wanted to do was to sit, and sit, without thinking of anything. She didn’t know how much time had pa.s.sed, but after maintaining a position for such a long time, her thighs were numb. Dizzily, she turned around and said loudly, “A Zheng, Auntie’s going to close the door, we should go back.” (Auntie refers to the dorm mother, I believe.)

A Zheng didn’t reply to her, and beside her was the long, empty audience stands. Even if Auntie kept the dormitory doors open all night long, would they still go back?

Zheng Wei’s head hung down low, so the first thing that she saw was his shoes. Her throbbing head’s line of sight slowly dragged up his long legs and up further, and that familiar face was in front of her. She chuckled, “Lin Jing, you finally came back from America?”

This joke was extremely cold, but Lin Jing laughed anyways, to give her face. (kind of like to let her keep her dignity)

“You seem in a pretty terrible condition.” He said.

Just as his voice sounded, he took her hand in his almost at the same time as she reached for his very causally, it had been his plan. She used it to get to her feet, and they both laughed. When she was younger she would walk through everything, pus.h.i.+ng through, and her eyes would only look forward, never looking down. After falling she would cry loudly, and even if it didn’t hurt she wouldn’t stand up, only waiting for Lin Jing to come over and pull her up. Back then she thought, no matter how hard she fell, he would always be able to pull her up with a single hand.

He brushed the dust off of her, and said, “Can you walk now?” Tonight’s Zheng Wei was especially well-behaved, and she obediently followed him to the car, opened the car door, and calmly sat in the pa.s.senger seat next to the driver. Before turning the car engine on, Lin Jing glanced over at her, and the effects of the alcohol were starting to fade after their meeting. But seeing her like this, it was very difficult for him to judge whether this result was a good or a bad thing.

The car slowly left the campus of G
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University, and coincidentally didn’t go into the traffic light. Chen Xiao Zheng’s black car had returned, but luckily, there weren’t many pedestrians in the darkness of the night on campus, so his extraordinary speed didn’t arouse others suspicion.

He got off the car, and walked alone into the center of the empty basketball court. How had he never discovered in the past, in the court with not a soul to be seen, the sound of the wind rustling the leaves of the trees was that clear. He looked around at the surroundings, and fruitlessly encircled the court, yet there was still only him. He closed his eyes, and seemed to hear the long ago’s Zheng Wei’s whispering voice fall onto his shoulder… …

“A Zheng, you promised me, never to let me wait for you again. I’m afraid I don’t have enough courage to keep on waiting for you, and I’m even more afraid, if we keep on walking (continuing on in life), we won’t ever be able to find one another again… … ”

He had already walked too far, and she couldn’t possibly wait in the original place forever. Maybe they really wouldn’t ever be able to find one another again. This he had already known long ago, but he regretted it. It was like climbing up in a single direction to a destined place, all of the bitterness along the way was expected, but he shouldn’t have looked back, because for that short moment he looked back, it was then he realized he was on a cliff.

He returned to his car, unmovingly resting to the steering wheel. When he left, all of the car windows were cranked open, music turned up all the way. If he drove fast enough, then no one would see, a man with a face so serene it looked unfeeling, who was crying absolutely without restraint.

Zheng Wei absent-mindedly saw out the window the car driving past, and suddenly muttered, “How did you know I was at the basketball court?”

Lin Jing modestly said, “I went in a great big circle, of course I found you.” As he said it, he took out a bottle of water from beside him and gave it to her.

Zheng Wei mechanically drank a little bit of water, and then, hearing the faint music in the car, started to gently sing along. The journey from G University to the Zhong Jian apartment complex was quite a long distance, and the night wind was the best cure for a hangover. She wished she could be a bit more muddle-headed, however she still became more and more clear headed anyways. She suddenly became very thankful to Lin Jing, not because he was willing to drive over in a hurry to look for her so late at night with just a phone call, but because he hadn’t asked a single question all along, why was she there? Why had she drank so much? Why was she alone? She didn’t want to answer any of them.

At the last intersection, there already weren’t many cars, as it wasn’t part of the town’s main roads, so of course, there weren’t any traffic guards, however, when the light turned red, Lin Jing still stopped the car.

Zheng Wei said, “There aren’t any traffic cameras here, if it were me, I would definitely step on the gas pedal and rush forward.”

Lin Jing replied, “We know where we are going, and besides, we aren’t in a hurry, so we can definitely obey the regulations.”

In between his words, Zheng Wei secretly looked him up and down. It was at this time that she finally realized, if her condition was actually so terrible, then he wasn’t one to speak. His normally obedient hair was disheveled, and on his pale beige long sleeve s.h.i.+rt, the entire shoulder area was covered in an already dried purple stain. A little bit had even splashed onto his chest, and when she moved a bit close, she could smell the distinct odor of red wine.

She wanted to ask, but she held it in. If Lin Jing could keep quiet about the things that she didn’t want to talk about, why couldn’t she? She was already no longer that Little Jade Dragon who declared to everyone that she was Lin Jing’s. He had his own life, it was very normal, because they had both grown up already.

Contrary to what you would expect, when Lin Jing noticed her sneaky peeping and her hesitation at speaking up, unconsciously looking at his left shoulder, he gave a wry smile and said, “I was startled by your phone call, I ran out before even changing my clothes.”

Zheng Wei laughed and said, “Did America make you develop a habit of drinking red wine alone at home?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe it’s just a bad habit.”

This time, she didn’t object as she let Lin Jing bring her to the front of the apartment complex. She was too tired, and she didn’t want to argue over such minor details. Before getting off the car, she hesitated a bit, and then looked at him and said, “I’m sorry.”

Lin Jiin didn’t understand. With her finger on the car door handle, she said, “I’m talking about that day that you sent me home, the words I told you on the car. At the time I was in a bad mood, and the words that came out of my mouth were very extreme. To be honest, I know that I’m not in a position to ask you to do anything for me, and I shouldn’t be pus.h.i.+ng the blame for my troubles onto you even more. When you went to America, ignoring me was something you should’ve done, and in the end, the matter with Uncle Lin… … I was just too used to you in the past… …”

He looked at her, listening without a word, and this kind of concentration made her feel a bit embarra.s.sed, and felt like her words weren’t conveying what she meant. The more she said, the more wrong she felt it was, and could only say in a hurry at the end, “I just wanted to tell you, I shouldn’t have taken my anger out on you that day.”

Lin Jing pursed his lips as he smiled. When he smiled, his eyes would have this undescribable quality to them, and both the dimple on his left cheek and the indent of his chin would become even more noticeable. In her mind, Zheng Wei thought, his career is going without a hitch, did he benefit because the majority of the criminals were bewitched by this smile?

“I… … I’ll go up now, Shu Bao has been waiting for me at home for too long now, I think he’s definitely a bit anxious.” For herself, she found a perfect reason, so then she got out of the car, and then helped him close the door.

She had already say goodbye, but it was very clear that he didn’t have the intention of leaving right away, as he remained in the car, watching and smiling at her just as he had been before.

“Well, it’s very late now, you should go home soon.” She waved at him.

He said, “It’s nothing, I’ll just watch you go upstairs, say hi to Shu Bao for me. If I have a chance to, I really want to see him sometime.”

Zheng Wei scratched her head, puzzled, then laughed. “It’s not easy to be able to see him, he isn’t very popular. When you have time, I’ll invite you up for some tea.”

He said: “Okay, I have time.”

“Ah? (like, “what?”) His response was too logical, to the extent that Zheng Wei momentarily couldn’t comprehend, and her smile froze on her face. Her house didn’t even have tea, and she often didn’t even boil her tap water, and the only things in her fridge were pure bottles of water and soda. That phrase, “go up and drink tea” was completely courtesy only. everyone responded like this, and knew instinctively not to take it seriously. Could it be that his experience outside of the country had rendered him unable to understand the polite courtesy (insincere) of the Chinese people?

If the person in front of her was someone else, she might’ve boldly and confidently said, “You have time, I don’t have time.” But he wasn’t someone else, he was Lin Jing. The experience of going over to his house four times a week to eat when she was younger was still fresh in her mind. In her mind she cursed at her mouth, but she couldn’t get the words to refuse him out of her mouth, so she could only pretend and say, “Okay.” Turning around, with her back facing him, she showed him the way up, annoyed.

“Over here.” She walked one step ahead of him up the stairs. This building was an old building built at the end of the 80s, so the lights in the stairs had already broken long ago. The management people didn’t show any interest in it, and the inhabitants had already gotten used to it as time had pa.s.sed. Zheng Wei’s mind had already cleared, but her steps were still unsteady, and in her absent-mindedness, she missed a step, and almost fell down. Luckily, Lin Jing from behind her supported her just in time, and then naturally took her hand in his. “It’s too dark, these lights should be fixed.”

“Yeah, they really should fix them.” Zheng Wei echoed, fl.u.s.tered. “Aya, I hope I didn’t forget to bring my keys.” She said as she removed her hand from his, rummaging for her keys all the way to the door.

“So this is where they are.” She said just then taking them out. Lin Jing only laughed a said, “A single woman living alone, it’s best to have the keys ready downstairs.”

Zheng Wei opened the door and entered, and in the dim lighting, like always, Shu Bao was sleeping on top of the refrigerator. Seeing there were visitors, he gave them face and s.h.i.+fted, jumping down, which was quite rare.

“Shu Bao, you know that mom returned?” Zheng Wei, overwhelmed by the honor, went to hug him, but even though he had awoken, he continuously rolled around near Lin Jing, occasionally even rubbing against him. This enthusiasm made the used-to-the-cold-shoulder-silent-treatment Zheng Wei do a double take.

“Shu Bao, be a bit more reserved.” She hollowly laughed twice at Lin Jing. “I think he’s hungry, he usually isn’t like this.”

Lin Jing half-crouched down, and scartched Shu Bao’s chin a bit. Comfortable, he closed his eyes, bowing and sc.r.a.ping, making Zheng Wei unable to keep watching. She took the opportunity to push open the door, blocking Lin Jing outside. “For now, you shouldn’t come in. I need to clean up a bit.” Her living quarters were just like the majority of single woman and men, all of her daily life was spent in her room, there were only useless decorations in the dining room. Other than the fridge, there weren’t any other kitchen appliances. Now, it had become even more like Shu Bao’s nest; the floor was covered in his toys and shredded newspaper.