CHAPTER IX

After Ling Zesheng left, Tong Yan sat on the sofa alone.

Qiao Ge was already asleep in the guest room, and lazily slipped out of the balcony, it walked around the room, went to eat some cat food, and then slowly paced back to the living room, looked at Tong Yan who was in a daze, jumped on the sofa and nested beside her, rubbing her head against her.

The late autumn night was eerily quiet, and through the windows you could see the night outside the house that was diluted by street lamps, and the little lights coming from the building opposite.

It seems that in such an environment, it is very suitable for reminiscence.

Tong Yan reached out and touched his lazy head, then looked at Ling Zesheng on the table who had drunk half of the green tea, reached out to take it, held it in his palm, and felt that the coldness oozing through the bottle had turned into a drop of water, flowing through the back of her hand and also into her heart.

After bowing her head and being silent for a while, Tong Yan turned off the top light, leaving only a floor lamp emitting a faint light, and she shrank cross-legged into the sofa.

――

The first memory is that in the summer when Tong Yan was 8 years old, a family suddenly moved in the community, and there was a good-looking brother in that family, who was Ling Zesheng.

It's just that Tong Yan was not Tong Yan at that time, she was called another name: Yan Jintong, and her identity at that time was Yan Jingdong's own sister. Yes, that's right, Yan Jingdong is the CEO of the future film giant Yuetang Media. But that's a long time to come.

When she was a child, Tong Yan didn't like her brother Yan Jingdong, of course, this was mainly because Yan Jingdong didn't like Tong Yan's mother.

Tong Yan's mother's name is Tong Hua, who was once a famous dancer, and later married Tong Yan's father and faded out of the dance world.

Tong Yan had heard that her parents' wedding at that time was very grand, and some media even used the word "dream" to describe it, but what made the outside world quite complaining was that this wedding was less than a year away from the funeral period of Tong Yan's father's first wife, Yan Jingdong's biological mother.

Of course, because of this, from the very beginning, Yan Jingdong didn't like Tong Yan's mother, and he didn't like Tong Yan either. So for Tong Yan, her entire childhood was spent in Yan Jingdong's bullying, until Ling Zesheng appeared.

It is no exaggeration to say that before Ling Zesheng's arrival, Yan Jingdong was the child king of the entire community, and Tong Yan, who was bullied by him at that time, could often only follow him as an errand runner, and even played hide and seek, every time as a crowd, only as a bystander.

It's just that this qiē has become a thing of the past after Ling Zesheng's arrival, with the wind, with the wind, with the wind

The first time Tong Yan participated in hide and seek, it was Ling Zesheng who took her.

There was a power outage that day, and Tong Yan remembers it very clearly. There are only a few emergency street lights in the community, and children are running and frolicking between the buildings. I don't know who moved, but a large table was placed in the open space in front of the door, and the table was covered with a large velvet tablecloth, which hung down to the ground.

Ling Zesheng pulled Tong Yan in.

Being in a closed environment, Tong Yan's heart was joyful and excited as never before, and she looked out carefully through the gap in the tablecloth, probing whether the ghost child had been found. In the dimness, she couldn't see clearly, and faintly she could only hear the low and joyful breathing from herself and Ling Zesheng.

Then Tong Yan heard Ling Zesheng call her name, very low, low, but with a strange feeling. Tong Yan turned to look at him in confusion, and saw him stretching out his covered hands in front of her, and said to her, "Little Tong, reach out and give you a gift." ”

Tong Yan stretched out his hand in confusion, and opened to a small fluorescent green that flew out between Ling Zesheng's slightly open palm, which was a firefly. Tong Yan was a little stunned, his outstretched hands in the air forgot to trap the faint light, and watched it fly out of the gap in the tablecloth and melt into the dim night outside.

"You let it run away." Ling Zesheng's tone sounded a little regretful.

At that time, Tong Yan paid all his attention to the firefly, and he didn't remember what Ling Zesheng said later, but later remembered that all his memories were in the narrow space, and the two children were mixed with the temperature of the air they breathed each other in the dark.

Since then, Tong Yan has been dangling behind Ling Zesheng, and he doesn't seem to hate Tong Yan's little tail.

Time flies, and years pass by in a flash.

Ling Zesheng's character in his youth has been established, and he has a calmness that does not match his peers, so calm and indifferent, but he can easily attract everyone's attention. Of course, this is also what makes Yan Jingdong unconvinced, so Yan Jingdong has worked against Ling Zesheng a lot, but the results are not very optimistic.

Tong Yan is growing up slowly, and there are not many memories of those years, and now all she can remember is that whenever Ling Zesheng wins something good from Yan Jingdong, she will bring it to her, or release water to her when playing games together, so as not to let her lose.

At that time, Tong Yan's short-lived and small happiness, if you calculate it carefully, was all because of Ling Zesheng. Therefore, for Tong Yan, who was just in the period of youth and ignorance, liking Ling Zesheng has become the first secret in his life that he is unwilling to share with others.

But in the future, she could never have imagined that it was this secret that kept her hidden for more than ten years.

There is a turning point in any story.

And Tong Yan's turning point was when she was 12 years old. It was in that year that she truly understood the profound meaning of the word "impermanence".

That year, Tong Yan's parents divorced, her mother was kicked out of Yan's house, Tong Yan was asked to change her surname, and she had to follow her mother out of the country, leaving the home where she lived for 12 years, and also leaving Ling Zesheng, whom she silently liked.

All the stories should have ended here.

However, 7 years ago, Tong Yan's father was seriously ill, and Tong Yan returned to China with his mother to visit, but in the end, he still didn't see the last face. Later, her mother settled in a foreign country, and before leaving, she gave Tong Yan the choice to herself, whether she went with her or stayed, and listened to Tong Yan's own.

So, Tong Yan stayed, took the college entrance examination as an ordinary person, went to college, participated in work, and kept silently paying attention to Ling Zesheng, who had become a star at that time, but never thought of meeting him again.

It's a pity that providence made people, and after going around for so long, they still encountered it.

It's just that too much time has passed in between.

It's not that I haven't imagined that if I see him again, she will call him by his name, but when he is really in front of her, all the courage will collapse in an instant, and what can only be said is a soft and harmless "Brother Zesheng".

At the moment when he opened his mouth, he was already unable to form an army, and Tong Yan was not qualified to say sorry to himself at all.

――

The eastern sky rises with a touch of fish belly white.

Tong Yan sighed, inexplicably a little sentimental. The lazy man who was asleep in her arms shifted his position, then opened his misty eyes and looked up at her, and stretched out his paw to gently scratch her twice. The meaning is obvious: I haven't woken up yet, so why are you arguing with me?

Reaching out and touching his lazy head, Tong Yan picked it up lazily and put it on the ground, ready to get up and pour a glass of water. When she looked down and just put on her slippers, she looked up and saw Qiao Ge standing at the door of the guest room looking at her.

Tong Yan was taken aback, and was stunned in place for a few seconds before she squeezed out a smile a little stiffly, and asked her, "Are you sleeping well, do you want to drink water?" ”

Qiao Ge supported the door frame with one hand, brushed the hair in his ears with the other, tried to open his already crying and swollen eyes to look at Tong Yan, and said in a dumb voice: "Thank you, don't bother." She paused for a moment to stabilize her figure, walked over to Tong Yan, and apologized, "I'm really sorry, I was in a bad mood yesterday, I talked a lot, I was drunk, and I caused you a lot of trouble, I'm really sorry." ”

"It's fine." Tong Yan smiled politely, made a "please" gesture to her, asked her to sit down, and pointed to a few bottles of drinks on the table: "That was taken out last night, it's no longer icy, you have to drink it yourself." ”

Qiao Ge said "um", smiled embarrassedly at Tong Yan, and reached out to rub his eyes.

Tong Yan glanced at her, got up and turned on the headlights in the living room, went to the refrigerator and took an ice pack, handed it to her, and motioned for her to apply it to her eyes to reduce swelling.

The two were speechless for a while.

This is not unusual, after all, it is just a classmate in college, even if there is still affection, there has been a few years in between, and everyone has become different from the beginning, and how to talk about it like back then.

Maybe this silence made Qiao Ge feel uncomfortable, and after a while, she began to talk to Tong Yan without words.

"What are you doing now?" She asked.

Tong Yan turned his eyes to her and replied, "Screenwriter." ”

Qiao Ge nodded, "Very good, you liked to write in college at that time." ”

"It's fine." The child's tone was light, "It's nothing special. ”

Silence again

"Tong Yan." After a while, Qiao Ge spoke again, and his tone unconsciously brought some flattery, "You are a screenwriter, do you know a lot of directors?" ”

In fact, when it came to this, Tong Yan already knew what she was going to say next, so she asked back directly without hesitation: "Do you want me to help introduce you to them?" ”

Qiao Ge was stunned for a moment, she didn't seem to expect Tong Yan to be so straightforward at all, she smiled a little embarrassedly, but still said, "If you feel embarrassed, forget it." ”

Tong Yan glanced up at her and spit out a monosyllable: "Okay." That ended the conversation.

After a while, Qiao Ge got up to say goodbye, and Tong Yan got up to see her off. Seeing her stepping into the cold wind of the early morning in a short skirt and high heels, Tong Yan felt a little unbearable in her heart.

In fact, she doesn't hate Qiao Ge, she just feels a little troublesome, and people like Qiao Ge are in the chaotic and noisy entertainment industry, if Tong Yan helps her, she will inevitably get into trouble, and it is better to have more than one thing.

But when she saw Qiao Ge wrapping the thin coat she was wearing in the cold wind, she suddenly felt a little pity for her.

So in the end, she still walked over and asked for Qiao Ge's contact information, although she didn't say anything, she believed that Qiao Ge should understand.