The howling north wind swept through the glass windows of the café with snowflakes.

Under the gray sky, the signboard of the department store opposite is still bright and ostentatious. Perhaps because it is approaching the end of the year, the number of pedestrians on the street has not decreased due to the severe cold weather, but there are more vehicles than usual.

Meng Li and her brand partners went to the department store early and deposited Wen Jianning in the nearby café. When she is done shopping with her little sister, she will come with the driver to pick her up.

Wen Jianning lowered his head and flipped through the newspaper, feeling a little heavy.

As Mr. Qi said that day, her-for-tat approach with the Wen family was certainly relieved for a while, but more spectators only felt that she was ungrateful and disregarded the kindness of her elders. Although she doesn't want to take these outsiders' thoughts to heart, she is just an ordinary person after all, and she can't be transcendent.

The pen name Bai Mao is obviously no longer available.

However, for a person who is interested in the road of literature, the entanglement of right and wrong in the pen name is nothing, and the most important thing is to look at the work.

Wen Jianning put the newspaper next to him and bowed his head in contemplation.

During her time in Shanghai, she only published a few essays sporadically at first, and was not in a hurry to write anything. At that time, she wanted to wait and see for a while to see the current literary trend before writing. But later, she picked up the pen and continued to write long and popular novels, firstly to support herself, and secondly, to make more money, and return the money to Mr. Qi as soon as possible.

Although the popular style in Shanghai is not the same as the popular style in previous years, the taste is much the same, at most it is just to move the background of the story to fashionable places such as horse racing halls and movie theaters, put on the shells of new characters, and paint a layer of gorgeous oil paint, and these lives are all too familiar to her, and they are naturally handy to write.

Although written fluently, these are not of high literary value.

On the contrary, the short and medium-sized stories in the entire "Wang" series, although they are just her temporary works to vent her anger, but aside from those external factors, this is actually the most decent work she has written in recent years except for "Flowers on the Sea".

She was in a trance, when a young student with a round face suddenly sat next to her, sat down opposite her unexpectedly, and asked her enthusiastically: "Classmate, which school are you?"

Wen Jianning raised his head in surprise, and said a little embarrassed: "I recently took a break from school and stopped studying for the time being." ”

The other nodded in understanding.

After all, studying in these years is a luxury, and maybe something happens to the family, and it may interrupt your studies. However, he still insisted on asking, "Classmate, did you hear about the Ant Society when you were in school?"

The female student in the blue shirt and black skirt who came with him hurriedly took out a leaflet from her arms and handed it to Wen Jianning, Wen Jianning also quickly took it with both hands, and when she looked down, she understood what the two students were doing.

The two men gave her a patriotic leaflet, and the ant society they mentioned was a club established last year, and its main members included students, some intellectuals, young workers, and even many members of the Shanghai Literary and Art Association.

Wen Jianning's tone was unprecedentedly soft: "I'm sorry, I originally studied in Hong Kong, not a native of Shanghai, and I may have to go to Beiping to study after a while, I may not be able to join your club, and I can't help you." ”

The two students had a look of regret on their faces.

But they recovered quickly. The girl took the initiative to shake Wen Jianning's hand and said, "I'm sorry to disturb your classmates, but if you go to Beiping in the future, you must also remember to do your part for the country." ”

She has short ear-length hair, and she also has a round face, looking even more childish than Wen Jianning. Although she speaks with a very serious demeanor, it is a bit funny for her age.

Wen Jianning nodded first, then looked around, lowered his voice and said to them, "However, it is too dangerous for you to pull members in the café like this. It's not good if it's reported by someone who cares. ”

The boy smiled: "You don't have to worry about this, there are many people in our club, if something really happens, there will be seniors to rescue us." And we've been observing you here for a long time, and you look like a student and a girl, so you shouldn't have done anything like that, so I'm here to try your luck. ”

But unfortunately, as Wen Jianning said, her stay in Shanghai was too short for her to participate.

"Without further ado, classmate, let's go first, I hope to see you later. ”

The two students only chatted with Wen Jianning for a moment before getting up and leaving.

She sat in her seat and saw through the glass window that the two students had just walked out into the street, when a group of Concession Patrol officers suddenly came across from her, and she stood up nervously. Fortunately, the two reacted quickly, and when they saw that the momentum was not right, they immediately ran away.

It just so happened that the tram stopped nearby, and a large wave of people came down from it. They took the opportunity to blend into the crowd and ran to the other side, and the patrolmen wielding batons also hurriedly chased after them, but they were blocked by the crowd.

It wasn't until he couldn't see the group of people clearly that Wen Jianning sat down.

Hopefully, those two students will get away with it.

After this little episode passed, Wen Jianning continued to sit at the table and write and draw, until the evening, when Meng Li and the others had a good time, and called her home. Wen Jianning lowered his notes and got into the car, but he didn't notice the sight of a Buick car not far away.

If she noticed, she might be able to recognize that the young man in the back seat of the car was Feng Yi, who she hadn't seen for a long time.

He returned to Shanghai from the United States to spend the New Year with his family.

Feng Yi glanced out of the window unintentionally, and saw a black Ford car parked not far away, with a girl with short hair, laughing with the middle-aged woman next to her and getting into the car, her eyebrows vaguely made him feel a little familiar.

He frowned slightly, and was about to see clearly, but the other party's car had already started slowly, driving in the opposite direction.

Sister Feng Ling came over from the side and looked out of the car window: "What are you looking at, why are you so focused?"

Feng Yi came back to his senses at this time: "It's nothing, it's just the wrong person." ”

"You haven't been back to Shanghai for many years, but I didn't expect to have acquaintances you remember," Feng Ling said with a smile, "Is it a girl? You are not young now, you must go to the dance with me to meet some young girls when you come back this time." ”

Feng Yi's face showed a look of helplessness, knowing that his sister was going to ask for these useless things again.

As the siblings chatted, their car restarted, moving further and further away from the original car until it disappeared around the corner.

......

In the blink of an eye, the day of the Spring Festival has finally arrived.

In this bungalow in the French Concession, it is also as busy as countless ordinary people.

Wen Baiqing had to go back and forth between the Wen family and the Liao family, and had no time to spend the New Year with them. On the premise of seeking Meng Li's consent, Wen Jianning invited Mr. Qi over and spent Chinese New Year's Eve with them in the bungalow.

Mr. Qi divorced her husband in her early years, and later broke up with her family, and she has been adrift alone in Shanghai all these years. In the past, every Chinese New Year, it was a lonely person facing an empty house.

The three of them got together and spent a rare and lively New Year.

At midnight, the Western self-striking bell struck twelve times, and Wen Jianning, who was still drowsy, woke up in the bell and said "Happy New Year" to them with a bright smile, and the two elders also took out red envelopes and distributed them to her with a smile.

If it was an ordinary day, Wen Jianning would definitely not accept it.

But at such a special moment as the New Year, she will not push away the New Year's money that every child deserves.

Wen Jianning took the red envelope and went back to the upstairs room, pressed it under the pillow, and slept peacefully. Just when she was still immersed in a rare good dream, the new year quietly came.

......

Soon after the year, Mr. Qi returned to his place of residence despite their dissuasion.

It's March in a blink of an eye, and it's time for Wen Jianning to leave for Beiping.

Although Meng Li had the intention to keep her for a few more months, she couldn't stop Wen Jianning from going to the university early to review her homework. In addition, it will take a while for her to get used to the water and soil in the north over there, and she really can't delay it any longer.

Before Wen Baiqing left Shanghai, he had already arranged for someone to send Wen Jianning to Beiping. Walking with her is a pair of brothers, Wen Baiqing specially transferred people from her side, the big one is called Wang Li, and the small one is called Wang Yong, they are all calm and reliable people, who have been protecting Wen Jianning almost every step of the way in the past few months, and they have long been familiar with her.

On the day of departure, Mr. Qi also came to say goodbye.

The driver drove the group to the train station, and Meng Li went back first.

She knew that they had a deep teacher-student relationship, and she was just an outsider, and staying here would prevent them from talking. Anyway, she had already sent people here, and there were two escorts behind her, Wang Li and Wang Yong, so she immediately went back first.

As soon as she returned to the bungalow in the French Concession, a maid greeted her with a thick brown paper envelope: "Madam, this was found in Miss Jianning's room. ”

Meng Li thought that Wen Jianning had accidentally fallen, but he didn't take it to heart.

As she was about to walk away, it occurred to her that the girl did not look like a lost person, and that she might have left the envelope on purpose, so she took it from the maid's hand. When I opened it, I saw that in addition to a letter, there were several bills of various denominations, and even a few silver dollars fell from it, and jingle and rolled to the ground.

Meng Li didn't look at the money, but opened the letter. The letter was written briefly, in Wen Jianning's usual style, and it contained nothing more than polite words such as thanking Meng Li for taking care of her during this time, and in addition to the fact that it was about the money. She didn't say anything, just said that the money was returned to her eldest brother and asked Meng Li to transfer it on her behalf.

Meng Li looked at the envelope, his eyes slowly becoming complicated, and finally sighed.

This kid.

......

After Meng Li left, there were still people coming and going on the platform, and people were buzzing.

Wen Jianning looked at Mr. Qi, his eyes were slightly red.

She had no father or mother since she was a child, and was later brought to the Wen family, and only in Mr. Qi, a teacher, could she absorb some family-like warmth and care. Although she had only lived with Mr. Qi for a few months, she felt reluctant to leave Shanghai when she really wanted to leave.

Mr. Qi laughed at her: "Although you are going to go far away, you are not a child anymore, and you are not allowed to learn to cry and cry." ”

Originally, Wen Jianning really wanted to cry, but when Mr. Qi said this, he had to accept his tears in embarrassment.

Mr. Qi saw that her mood had stabilized, so he babbled about some precautions for her trip to the north, and told her to wear more clothes and study hard.

"If you don't get used to it when you go to Beiping," Mr. Qi paused, "just be more patient and study with peace of mind." ”

She wanted to say that if Wen Jianning was not used to it, she could go back to Shanghai. But when the words came to his lips, he changed his words. No matter how attached to the old nest the young bird is, there will always be a day when it spreads its wings and flies high. She can't delay Jianning's future because of her temporary softness.

Wen Jianning nodded, holding back the tears that came up again.

Seeing that the train was about to start, Mr. Qi hurriedly urged Wen Jianning to get on the train.

Wang Li and Wang Yong helped carry the luggage in front and squeezed through the crowd. Wen Jianning quickly found his seat in the carriage and leaned against the window to see Mr. Qi on the platform not far away.

Mr. Qi was waving at her below, and Wen Jianning was also waving at her desperately.

The whistle blew three times, and the train finally rumbled.

The platform was crowded with people, rushing towards the direction of the train in the dark.

Wen Jianning saw through the glass that Mr. Qi, like many people on the platform, was running and waving, but he couldn't catch up with the faster and faster train, and he was getting farther and farther away from her.

This is not the first time Wen Jianning has said goodbye to Mr. Qi, but it is the first time she has inexplicably had such a strong premonition-

This is probably the last time she will see Mr. Qi in her life.

(End of chapter)