However, Wen Jianning only thought about it for a short time, because Mr. Qi entered the room sideways, and when he saw that she was awake, he urged: "Since you have woken up, go wash your face and get up to eat with me." ”

Breakfast was simple and plain, and Mr. Qi bought golden and crispy rice cakes, thickly boiled sugar rice porridge, and a small plate of pickled red amaranth from the breakfast stall. Mr. Qi handed her the chopsticks and spoon, and said, "I don't know if you are used to eating these, when we get up tomorrow morning, I will take you to the breakfast stall, or wait for the next time I go to the bakery to buy you some pastries and come back." ”

Wen Jianning shook his head: "Don't bother like this, these are good." ”

She has no habit of picky eating, and picks up the bowl and eats her share of porridge cleanly.

After the meal, Mr. Qi packed his things and prepared to go to the magazine.

Before leaving, she specially instructed Wen Jianning: "You wait for me at home for a while, I will go to the newspaper office to ask for half a day off, and I will come back to accompany you around in a while." If you're bored, you can look for a book to read, but don't touch the stack of books on my right. I brought the key, and if anyone knocked, no one should open the door, not answer, and not make a sound. ”

After Mr. Qi left, the room suddenly became empty.

Wen Jianning couldn't sit still for a while, so he rolled up his sleeves and began to help clean the room.

She pushed open the balcony and the windows of her room, and the cool air of the early autumn morning greeted her.

The blue sky was cut into a narrow gap by the gray buildings on both sides of the road and the clotheslines stretching from the opposite building, and in the distance, the pigeon coops of unknown families were not closed, and the white doves fluttered their wings and flew by, and soon disappeared into the sky.

Although Mr. Qi is busy with his work on weekdays, the room is still roughly cleaned up, except for some corners where dust has fallen, only the desk in the bedroom against the wall is full of large volumes of books, which are placed crookedly, and there is a thick manuscript paper pressed underneath. Wen Jianning arranged them neatly one by one, sorted out the scattered manuscript papers, and pressed them with inkwells.

As for the stack of books on Mr. Qi's right, she didn't plan to move it.

After cleaning up, Wen Jianning was about to turn around and leave, when a book was accidentally knocked to the ground. She leaned down to pick up the book, caught a glimpse of the tiny curly Russian on it, paused, and put the book back on the table.

After a while, Mr. Qi returned.

The two went out together and began to familiarize themselves with the surrounding terrain.

The area where Mr. Qi lives is close to the Suzhou Creek, surrounded by alleys and houses, and there are forks in the road, so outsiders can rush into it and get lost in the alley if they don't pay attention.

After Wen Jianning followed Mr. Qi a few times, he barely remembered the general route.

In the evening, after dinner, the teacher and student worked together to carry a small desk they had bought upstairs and placed it in the room facing the window. At night, the teachers and students each have a table, each writing their own things.

On the other side, Mr. Qi was still immersed in translating her Russian works, while Wen Jianning sat at his small desk, looking out the window at the night and muttering for a moment before picking up his pen and planning to write a letter to Hong Kong.

A letter to Zhong Hui to report his safety, and a letter to Jianxiu also to Zhong Hui to hand over.

After finishing the letter to Zhong Hui and them, Wen Jianning took out a few more pieces of manuscript paper.

And one more -

Originally, she also sent a letter to Wen Baiqing, but she didn't know where he was now, if she sent it to Guangzhou, she was afraid that she would be discovered by the Wen family, so she would follow the address and find the door again, so she could only put it aside.

The tip of her pen unconsciously drew circles after circles on the paper, until the ink soaked through the light blue letter and almost struck her sleeve, and then she hurriedly put the pen away first, and then made up her mind on the blank stationery.

This last letter, Wen Jianning wanted to write to Feng Yi who was far away in the United States.

The last time she sent a letter, she was upset, and she only wrote a few sentences and sent them to others, for fear that she would worry the other party. Now that she has settled down, it's time to write a letter back.

She cheered up and wrote earnestly on the paper: "Feng Yi: Due to something at home, I have recently moved to Shanghai to settle down. Rest assured, I'm fine here in Shanghai, but I was so busy with trivial matters a few days ago that I didn't have time to tell you about the move. If you would like to correspond to me, please send it to this address. ”

Wen Jianning originally planned to write a few more sentences, but she hesitated for a long time, and finally put away the pen. It's enough to write here, she and Feng Yi are just ordinary friends after all, and those people and things of the Wen family are really not enough to talk to outsiders in detail.

After all the letters were packed, Wen Jianning let out a long sigh of relief, and the whole person leaned back on the back of the chair. It wasn't until this moment that she really felt like she was completely away from the Wen family.

She can finally start living her own life.

Wen Jianning stayed in Mr. Qi's apartment in this way.

The two live under the same roof, and Mr. Qi inevitably has to teach himself how to live as a proud protégé.

Although Wen Jianning is not arrogant, after all, she has been to Hong Kong since she was six years old, and her life in the Mid-Levels villa is all taken care of by a maid, and now she is only a teenage girl, and the days of real independent life have just begun.

Wen Jianning followed Mr. Qi to learn how to boil water, how to cook with a gas stove, how to sew clothes with needles and threads, bit by bit, all small things in life. Although she stumbled at first, she finally found her way.

Compared with the Mid-levels villas in Hong Kong, the life in the apartment is hard, but it is not fun.

Wen Jianning got up early in the morning and opened the skylight, hung the washed clothes on the rope of the balcony and clamped them, watching them swaying in the wind like colorful flags, and the pedestrians hurriedly walked by; in the abandoned flower pot on the windowsill, Wen Jianning planted a bunch of dog's tail grass, Mr. Qi said that next spring, she could dig up a few impatiens and plant them, and when they were ready, they would dye Wen Jianning's nails; and at night, she sat at her desk and spread out the manuscript paper, and outside the window was the dark night sky, and the vendors selling wontons pushed the carts underneath and walked by, and the sound of selling echoed in the narrow alley, and after a while, some people couldn't help but run out to bargain。

These trivial things made Wen Jianning feel inexplicably satisfied.

There are also many things that make people unhappy in apartment life.

The upstairs tenants always dry the quilt directly on the drying pole, and as soon as the feather duster is pumped, the dust will be mixed with the chicken feathers and fall down, and they will not change it after several times; the iron pipe of the hot water is rusty, and the turbid yellow water is always dripping down, Wen Jianning has spent a lot of effort, but she has not been able to completely polish off the rust on it, Mr. Qi asked her to leave it alone, but she still can't help but be angry with the pipe; Wen Jianning also went to the morning market to sell vegetables, and bargained with the sharp-toothed hawkers, but every time she said the end, she was so embarrassed that her face was flushed, and she hid behind Mr. Qi and didn't dare to make a sound。

But even these trivial troubles can make people feel so fulfilling.

After another half a month, Wen Jianning slowly calmed down from this ecstasy of rebirth.

During the day, Mr. Qi had to go out to work and couldn't take care of her. And although she doesn't like to go shopping, she stays in the apartment all day and has nothing to do, which is too boring, so she simply takes the vegetable basket out early in the morning to help Mr. Qi buy vegetables and study cooking.

The location where they live is close to the Suzhou Creek, and they walk along the road after leaving the alley, and soon they can see the dilapidated canopy boats on both sides of the bank crowded tightly, Wen Jianning knows that this boat is the family's place to stay, and food and housing are under the small canopy. On both sides of the road are all kinds of stalls, and in addition to the ordinary citizens who come here to buy vegetables in the early morning, there are also many poor people who rely on ragged clothes and picking up rotten vegetable leaves to feed themselves.

She stood there and watched for a long time before walking to the vegetable stall.

In the evening, Mr. Qi came home and didn't see Wen Jianning coming out, and after looking around, he found that Wen Jianning was squatting on the kitchen floor, carrying a fishtail in one hand and a kitchen knife in the other, as if he was thinking about how to start.

Wen Jianning saw that she was back, and smiled embarrassedly: "I haven't shaved a fish for many years, and some hands are raw." ”

With that, she lowered her head and continued to scrape the scales back and forth vigorously.

Mr. Qi was originally worried that she would cut herself, but seeing that her movements were gradually becoming proficient, he didn't say anything anymore.

Wen Jianning cooked a table of dishes alone, and after finishing cooking, the whole person was tired and sweating. But when she saw Mr. Qi's approving expression, she lowered her head and ate with confidence.

Seeing that the meal was almost finished, Wen Jianning whispered, "Sir, I want to go out and find a job." ”

"Looking for a job?"

Mr. Qi's action of picking up the vegetables paused in mid-air.

"Although I can write some articles and submit them to the newspaper, it's not good to stay in the house all the time," Wen Jianning put a piece of fried crispy crucian carp into a bowl for her, and said seriously: "I can be a tutor, play the piano in a restaurant, or be an editor, and always see more of the outside world." You can rest assured, it's not just about the money. ”

Mr. Qi pondered for a moment before saying, "It's good that you want to go out to work, but after all, you are still a student, and you should focus on studying." If it weren't for this sudden accident, you would have one year left to finish your studies. I don't think so, I'll go to the surrounding middle schools and ask if there are any willing to accept you as an observer in the class. ”

Wen Jianning thought for a while, then shook his head and said, "Mr. Qi, let me go and find a job first." I've almost learned my homework when I was in Hong Kong, so as long as I review it from time to time, you don't have to worry about that. I plan to take advantage of this time to see more people and then go to the universities in Shanghai to walk around. ”

After hearing this, Mr. Qi didn't talk more, but said, "Since you have an idea in your heart, go ahead and do it." ”

After eating, the teacher and student went to their respective desks and started working.

Mr. Qi is still translating her books, and Wen Jianning has not received a reply from Hong Kong for the time being, so she can only write daily reading notes, and occasionally find time to write an essay to earn some pen money.

Wen Jianning suddenly stopped writing and turned his head and said: "Sir, I have thought a long time ago that it would be very meaningful to open the window upstairs in the middle of the night, and as soon as I stretched out my hand, I seemed to be able to catch the moon in the sky. ”

Mr. Qi didn't raise his head and said: "When the lights are lit and the windows are opened at night, it is easy to attract mosquitoes." ”

Wen Jianning sighed a little disappointed.

After a while, Mr. Qi stopped his pen and pulled out another piece of manuscript paper before saying, "The previous window screen was broken, and I haven't changed it again, so we'll go buy a piece of gauze tomorrow and come back." ”

Wen Jianning became happy at this time.

The teacher and student were busy with their work at their desks until the night turned dark, when they both packed up their books and went back to their respective beds to sleep peacefully.

(End of chapter)