Thinking of this, Qin Yan suddenly felt a little twitching in his heart, as if he was a little bored. He took a deep breath with a frown, then extinguished the second cigarette that was about to burn out on the balcony railing, and the smoke ring slowly exhaled from his mouth.

I remember that when he first saw those dozen words, he thought she was playing a joke on him, and looked for her all over the house, but he didn't see anyone. Then he sat at the table for a long time, pondering what was wrong, and there seemed to be no sign of anything other than what he had said earlier that had made her eyes red.

He wondered if she had suddenly felt that the decision to marry him had been made too hastily, because she was still young, pretty, and had many suitors. He had also seen a lot of girls in the twilight and in the evening, and when he saw that he didn't accept them, he would turn around and go to someone else. He was even a little depressed, thinking that she should at least make it clear to him in person, instead of leaving a sentence inexplicably like this and then announcing the termination of the marriage without authorization. He called her, called her twice before answering, and when she asked her anything, she ignored it, and her tone was indifferent to the two of them before. He held the mobile phone and his feelings fluctuated a little, and finally decided to give her an ultimatum in a tone like a business negotiation, he thought that if she was really so willful and ignorant, then forget it. But she really said indifferently and hung up the phone, "Okay, I know", and he impatiently threw the phone aside and froze in front of the table for a long time. Suddenly, he found himself actually angry? He had never been angry about such things before, he just felt that it was one less trouble.

The engagement was less than a week away, and he waited two days, but she still didn't call him. He thought to himself that she was really free and easy to leave, leaving a mess for him to clean up. asked the secretary to call the wedding planner and ask them to cancel the ceremony next week, but the secretary came back and told him that he already knew, and the secretary described the original words that he had heard from there: "We have heard from Miss Li that the two of you are on a tight holiday and plan to go on your honeymoon first, so we postponed the ceremony." ”

He arranged to cancel some other things, and all of them were the same answers, and he realized that she had been planning for a long time. It seemed that it was the first time in his life that he had been released a pigeon, and he thought with some resentment that he could go and tell her father everything, so that the Li family might feel that they owed him something and make up for him. But when the words came to his lips, he still changed his words while holding the phone, and said: "Buckwheat said that she wanted to go on a study tour before marriage, so we postponed the wedding." At that time, it had been a week since she left, and the engagement ceremony was the next day, but she still didn't have a phone call, it seemed that she had made up her mind not to marry him, and he didn't know what he was insisting on.

During that time, he also saw an unopened letter on the desk, maybe his aunt received it and put it here, he was a little surprised that it was written by Cen Jia to him, read it hastily, but he was not in the mood, he already knew her life, so he put the letter in the drawer and ignored it.

was so annoyed for half a month, and later, he gradually became a little worried, he hesitated to take the initiative to call her, but the phone was always turned off. In the eyes of outsiders, they are still a couple with a marriage contract, and it is not appropriate to ask her family, but he thinks that her family is not in a hurry and panic, it should be that she is safe and sound. But what about him, can he only go back to Yunjing every day to wait for her?

Then at this time, he unexpectedly saw Li Qiao's unfinished letter, and he looked at what she wrote in the letter: "Qin Yan, I really liked you for so long in the past, and that kind of liking made me a better version of myself, but that shouldn't also become your shackles, you should have your freedom in the sea and the sky." I want you to be happier than anyone else, so I thought I should take the initiative to leave you. ”

He felt dazed, vaguely felt that they seemed to have some misunderstanding, it was true that he couldn't respond to her with the same emotion, but he should have never said that he felt that her liking for him was a burden, he really didn't understand the girl's thoughts.

After thinking about it for two days, he asked people to check her itinerary and wanted to have a good talk with her. She didn't deliberately avoid him like Cen Jia, and the itinerary was not difficult to find, and it didn't take long for the secretary to come and tell him that she was in Gothenburg, Sweden, a beautiful harbor city. The private investigator even took a lot of pictures of her, he looked through them one by one, some of them were her sitting quietly in the cathedral, staring at the golden angels with wings in front of her, some of them were standing on the tram, her eyes seemed to be a little empty, and some of them were just her sitting idly in front of the dock, next to a holly tree, looking at the time when those photos were taken, she actually sat there all afternoon.

He looked at more than ten or twenty photos for a long time, and after a long time, the secretary coughed a few times beside him, and then he suddenly came back to his senses, thought about it for a while, and asked the secretary: "Do you think she doesn't seem to be very happy?" "There are so many photos, not a single one is smiling.

The secretary said to him: "Oh, I was about to report to you, Mr. Liu said that Miss Li was not very happy in the past two days, she had taken a fancy to a painting in a gallery, but the boss said that it had been booked away by a guest, Miss Li begged the boss for a long time, saying that it would be her birthday soon, and she wanted this painting as her birthday gift, but the boss didn't resell it to her, I heard that she was very disappointed." ”

He was silent for a few seconds, then laughed softly and said, "Do you want me to teach you such a thing?" After another pause, "Help me book a ticket for these two days, and I'll call to attend the meeting on Friday." ”

Later, he took a plane for more than 20 hours, passing through Frankfurt in the middle, and it was already midnight when he arrived there, and he checked into the hotel where she was staying.

He felt very tired and his head hurt, but he didn't feel sleepy at all. Early in the morning, he made a cup of coffee and stood on the balcony of the hotel, thinking about how to contact her.

At that moment, he saw a figure walk out of the door of the hotel, and he didn't pay attention, and spilled a little coffee from his hand, dripping on his nightgown. He didn't bother to pay attention to it, walked a little to the balcony, and saw Li Qiao take the easel and the painting box and go out. She walked under his windowsill, her hair curled up at the back of her head, a beautiful paintbrush in a bun, and a casual white T-shirt and suspenders, like an art student in college. He suddenly stopped a little, he didn't have any special feeling when he looked at the photos, and when he saw the real person, he seemed to be a little hesitant, and he didn't know where that timidity came from.

Seeing that she had gone away, he hurriedly went back to the room to change his clothes and chased out, following not far away. He saw her stand on the side of the road, and then took a small stool and sat down.

He stood on the corner of the street, a position where she couldn't find him, and all morning he watched her sketch portraits on the side of the road like a painter who made a living, sometimes she came to her to paint innocent children, sometimes tourists, she didn't charge money for children, tourists wanted to give her money, and she also let them throw money in her painting box at will, no matter how much. When she doesn't have a business, she rests against the wall with her eyes closed, or paints an old couple sitting in the sun on a bench next to her. She seems to be in a good mood today, perhaps because she finally bought the painting she liked so much yesterday. The previous secretary told him that he had contacted the buyer and that he had agreed to resell it to them at three times the price. He thought about it, but didn't want her to think he was investigating her, so he asked the secretary to contact the gallery owner and ask the owner to sell it to her at the original price.

It was noon, when she put her easel in place, stuffed the bits and pieces of money from the suitcase into her trouser pocket, and carried the suitcase to dinner. Walking all the way on the long street, occasionally seeing a few street performers begging for a living, she grabbed the money in her pocket and gave them out, and sometimes when she saw the other party taking a nap, she would also put her movements very lightly, so as not to disturb people's rest. At last she had some change left, so she went to the bakery and bought two loaves of bread and went to the town square to feed the wild cats and pigeons. Later, she answered the phone and went back to the hotel.

He also spent the night thinking about how and on what occasion to meet her tomorrow. I got up the next morning and asked the front desk of the hotel, only to hear that the Miss Jocelyn from China had left the hotel last night.

He was a little surprised, and asked people to check it again, and actually heard that she had bought a ticket back to N City.

He suddenly thought with some expectation in his heart that she might have gone back to look for him, and if she really liked him as much as the letter said, then it shouldn't be so easy to give up on him, so he hurriedly booked the nearest flight back. He was even already beginning to think about what to say when he met, should he apologize? Although he didn't know what to apologize for, girls seemed to like men to bow their heads to them.

But after going back and waiting for several days, there was still no news. He couldn't help but call her home, and it was her aunt who picked it up, and the other party said with some confusion: "Miss Buckeye? Miss Buckwheat hasn't been home, I heard Mr. Li say a few days ago that she seems to be in Sweden. ”

He hung up the phone, feeling a little disappointed. Disappointed...... This also seems to be a new term for him. Someone went to investigate, and found that she seemed to have just come back to take care of some personal matters, and then left without a sound. But this time she didn't go abroad, and the entry and exit records couldn't be found, so he checked for a long time before he finally found her traces again.

Qin Yan remembered that he was in the office that day, and there was a meeting in the afternoon, and a stack of meeting materials was placed in front of him, and he seemed to have read it for a long time before reading a little. Later, the manager of the administration department brought the plan of the annual meeting to him for signature

The manager didn't quite understand what he meant, and said with some trepidation: "Hmm...... It's been arranged like this before, so what do you think......"

He pondered for a few seconds and said, "Everyone is working hard this year, let's organize a trip." He paused for a moment and turned the computer screen to show the other party: "I think this place is good, you go to make a plan again, and the budget will be approved for me." ”

The manager stepped forward to take a look, and was stunned for a long time: "Xiangzhou? Mr. Qin, that's in City A, this ...... It takes three hours to take a plane, so is one day enough for the annual meeting? ”

He thought for another two seconds: "Then send a notice and give everyone four days off for Christmas." ”

The manager checked with him again in disbelief, and then went out happily. He leaned back in his chair in his office with his eyes closed, and after a while, he smiled a little, a little unable to believe what he had done. But his heart was suddenly a little more relaxed, at least he could see the stack of meeting materials in front of him.

A few nights before going to Xiangzhou, he had some insomnia, he planned to see her this time, he must not be like the last time in Gothenburg, hesitated for a long time and did not come forward to talk to her, he must at least have a good talk with her, no matter what he said.

He had thought of many possible scenarios when they met again, he had thought that she might lose her temper, scold him angrily, or sneer, or even bother to talk to him, but all of them definitely did not include a gentle and polite "hello". He remembered that on the way from a distance to the seaside, he saw her talking and laughing happily with her friend, the smile between his eyebrows and eyes was the same as he had seen in Gothenburg, and the man seemed to have a common theme with her in art, and was also very charming, the type that little girls liked. He suddenly realized that the days she had been away from him had been like this, she didn't feel as lonely and lonely as he was, and all the ridiculous feelings were just his own. She was also very naturally relaxed when she talked to him, although what she said about Cen Jia surprised him, he never knew what she wanted to say about Cen Jia's existence, but she didn't seem to care at all. She has planned a beautiful and good future, and none of that has anything to do with him.

Qin Yan stood on the balcony with his back against the guardrail, the sky was already completely dark, and in the sound of overlapping waves, he heard a roar from the dock in the distance, which was the sound of the ferry about to sail.

He lifted his eyes, pulled himself out of the long memory, threw away his cigarette butt and left the balcony, and walked out into the dark and lonely room. He suddenly remembered the last sentence of her letter, saying that she wanted him to be happier than anyone else, so she wanted to leave him on her own initiative.

But now he really wanted to ask her why he didn't feel happy, but just lonely.