Take It Easy

And don't want to be the worst of your friends.

There are people coming and going on the streets of the old city, and the thick old sycamore trees along the road have not yet begun to sprout. The quiet morning light passes through the bare branches, leaving patches of mottled light and shadow on the city.

Zhou Yi stood in the light and shadow, his heart was beating restlessly, like a breeze blowing a pool of submerged water, the originally turbid water surface suddenly became clear and rippling.

Zhou Yi was sure that Mu Qinglin's original words at the time were definitely not like this.

Not that long.

But what can't match the weight of a "like"?

So she didn't think about pursuing it any further, but nodded slowly, and then asked dawdly, "It doesn't matter if you're not promising?"

"A picture of yours is worth a year's salary, so you're worthless?" Mu Qinglin asked back with a smile.

"It's not about making money."

"what is that?"

Zhou Yi pursed her lips and remained silent.

After a long time, she said: "It's nothing. You go, I will take a taxi back to the store by myself."

Mu Qing pressed her eyebrows imperceptibly, and said afterwards: "I'll see you off..."

Mu Qing turned around immediately before the words fell, and didn't give Zhou Yi a chance to refuse.

On the way back, Zhou Yi kept turning his head to look at the receding street scene outside, and was dazed when the car stopped. He unbuckled his seat belt and said, "I'm leaving..."

Mu Qinglin, "Hmm..."

Before getting out of the car, Mu Qinglin saw Zhou Yi's lips move, as if she had something to say, she waited, only to hear the door closing sound much softer than the previous few times.

Mu Qinglin didn't leave right away, she flashed her double flash, and watched Zhou Yi walk away from the rearview mirror little by little.

She actually knew what Zhou Yi meant by "not promising", but she couldn't say it. There are some things that Zhou Yi has to figure out on his own so that he won't regret it.

As she said, she hid in Hongmen Alley by herself, and she can only go out of it voluntarily.

"Knock..." There was a sudden knock on the car door.

Mu Qing came back to his senses and lowered the car window, and asked Zhou Yi, who was bending over and standing outside, "Why are you back?"

Zhou Yi looked at her, his black and white eyes had a layer of sunshine that wanted to be enthusiastic, but was reluctant to part with the silence left by the long night.

"Do you want to go to sleep with the Buddha?" Zhou Yi glanced at Mu Qinglin's wrist and said, "It's almost ten o'clock."

Mu Qinglin was slightly startled, the moment when he laughed, it was like an invisible force, with a light push, the sunshine in Zhou Yi's eyes was forced to enter the noon.

"Okay..." she said.

—

Tang Yuanzhou and Yang Ling were running around in a hurry, seeing the two of them coming in one after the other, they grabbed Zhou Yi and asked, "Is there anyone making things difficult for you?"

"Why are you embarrassing me?" Zhou Yi shook his coat, "I know what's going on with Lu Chang, but if I don't know, who can force me on the head?"

Tang Yuanzhou let out a long breath, "That's good..." He was worried all morning, for fear that Lu Chang's matter would involve Zhou Yi.

"Mu Qinglin, thanks to you this time." Tang Yuanzhou said gratefully.

Mu Qinglin, "No, I really didn't do anything."

"If you do more, the two of us will have no face standing here." Yang Ling took the words and stepped forward, "It's embarrassing at home in the middle of the night, and we didn't find out until the police came to the door."

Zhou Yi's eyes were gloomy, "Who is ashamed?"

Yang Ling, "You..."

Without looking back, Zhou Yi said to Mu Qinglin who was standing diagonally behind, "You go up first, I have something to discuss."

Mu Qinglin suppressed a smile, "Don't be impatient..."

Mu Qinglin went upstairs under the puzzled eyes of Yang Ling and his wife.

As soon as the footsteps disappeared, Yang Ling and Tang Yuanzhou immediately asked in unison: "What's going on?"

Zhou Yi glanced at the two of them, lowered his head and rubbed his chin into the down jacket, "You are blind, you can't even understand them when you bring them home."

Yang Ling, "I understand, but I didn't expect to be so proactive."

"It's not illegal to take the initiative." Zhou Yi curled his lips.

"The drawing in my hand is basically finalized, so I won't work today." Zhou Yi said to Tang Yuanzhou.

Tang Yuanzhou said without hesitation, "No problem..." He wished that Zhou Yi would perform badly every day, and Zhou Yi who worked too hard was not normal Zhou Yi at all.

"Okay, then take a good look at the house, I'm going to work." Yang Ling said.

The two watched Yang Ling leave.

Zhou Yi turned around and walked back.

Halfway through, the pace stopped abruptly.

"Brother..." Zhou Yi said.

Tang Yuanzhou, "Huh?"

Zhou Yi, "I've been staying in Hongmen Alley, do you think it's okay?"

Tang Yuanzhou frowned, he didn't expect Zhou Yi to ask such a question suddenly.

After thinking for a while, Tang Yuanzhou said truthfully: "I stayed in Hongmen Lane because of Lingling, and Lingling didn't leave because she was born and raised here. You are different from us. If you have a chance, go out and have a look. Seeing anything is better than sitting on the porch , take fights as excitement."

Zhou Yi nodded calmly, "Oh, I see."

"Wait..." Tang Yuanzhou stopped Zhou Yi who was about to leave, "I have something for you."

Zhou Yi saw that Tang Yuanzhou had gone to the next door, and quickly came over with a card in his hand, handed it to her and said, "Lu Chang gave it to you on Christmas Eve, you drank too much and dropped it on the floor, and I never thought of giving it to you. "

Zhou Yi said "hmm", took the card and went upstairs directly.

In the room, Mu Qinglin was already lying down, breathing quietly and long, and seemed to be asleep.

Zhou Yi took off her shoes at the door and walked in lightly, trying to find a place to sit.

The stool was tucked under the desk, and it would definitely make a sound when pulled out.

On the bed... As soon as she sat down, Mu Qinglin would probably wake up.

After hesitating for a while, Zhou Yi sat cross-legged on the carpet beside the bed.

At ten o'clock, Hongmen Lane was not yet fully alive, and there was only the shadow cast by the provincial office building by the window, making the room gloomy and cold.

Zhou Yi took out the small card and opened it.

The words on it are ugly, but they are written very seriously, stroke by stroke.

[Xiao Jiu, Merry Christmas. At this time next year, my brother may take his sister to live a new life. I don’t know if there is any chance to come back to Hongmen Lane.

Don't think about brother, or brother will feel bad.

People like Brother are not worth thinking about, hahaha.

Also, I know that you are more than just the elementary school diploma Yuan Zhou mentioned, you must go back to school if you have the opportunity, and go through everything you should experience in your life, or you will not die in peace. 】

In just a hundred or so words, Zhou Yi read it for five or six minutes.

Her hand holding the greeting card couldn't help shaking.

It seems that Lu Chang really didn't blame her.

The regret and resentment in his eyes was not only because he couldn't find his sister, but also because he didn't see her have a bright future.

Why do you want to do this?

She never gave him a good face, why should he be so nice to her?

Do you want her to have a bad conscience for the rest of her life?

Then he really did.

As long as the word "Lu Chang" is mentioned in this life, she will remember that she owes him a sister and has taken so many benefits from him in vain.

How can she pay these things back?

People are gone, how can I pay back?

Zhou Yi curled up her legs against her chest, arched her shoulders and slowly lay down on her stomach.

In the silence of the room, she struggled silently, not realizing that Mu Qinglin, who was supposed to be sound asleep, was also silently looking at her.

The time quietly passed eleven o'clock.

Zhou Yi straightened up and sat for a while, then pulled out a dusty cardboard box from under the bed.

She looked at it motionless for a long time, then reached out to open it.

Inside was a thick stack of books and piles of used draft paper.

Zhou Yi took out the contents one by one, until the iron box pressed at the bottom was exposed, and her movements stopped for a moment.

Because of the backlight all year round and the proximity to the river, the environment of Hongmen Lane tends to be tidal in all seasons.

Metal objects can rust quickly if they are not properly protected.

Zhou Yi put the box on his lap, and after trying half a circle, he found a corner that could be broken off.

Inside the box was a badge with the words "Zhou Yi, Class 1, Senior Three", a few grade slips printed with grades of each subject and total score ranking, and a stack of certificates with their covers removed.

Zhou Yi looked at the things inside silently, connecting with the dusty and long-lasting memories in his mind.

A lot of it just passed by in a flash, and all that remained was one chaotic day in June.

It was a sunny day, but she stood at the head teacher's desk like a drowned chicken and said, "I won't read."

The head teacher sighed heavily, "Zhou Yi, the college entrance examination will be in a few days, can't you just hold on?"

"What's the use of the exam?" Zhou Yi calmly tore off his collar and showed the teacher the wound on his neck that was still oozing blood, "If you pass the exam, these things will no longer exist?"

The teacher turned his eyes away and couldn't bear to look at it for a second, "Just change the place."

Zhou Yi laughed, lowered her hand and asked her, "Teacher, can you guarantee it? If you can guarantee to change the place, no one will know who Zhou Yi is, so she can start again?"

The teacher is speechless.

No one can guarantee this kind of thing.

Zhou Yi knew it clearly, but asked again stubbornly, "Teacher, can you guarantee it?"

The teacher hesitated to speak, but in the end he just perfunctory her with the most meaningless words, "Zhou Yi, it will be fine..." The subtle light in Zhou Yi's eyes dimmed, and he sneered, "What no one can guarantee, What am I going to test it for?"

After saying that, Zhou Yi turned and left without looking back.

It has been more than a year since this scene.

Zhou Yi thought that the burning pain in her neck had faded long ago, but the memory seemed to be engraved in her bones. She still felt pain all over her body after thinking about it for a while.

She doesn't want to remember at all.

Lu Chang's words are sparing no effort to pull those pictures out.

"Xiao Jiu, why do you think I didn't know how to go to school well before?"

"If I have a diploma, maybe I can find a decent job to support my sister, so she doesn't have to worry about being here with me, and maybe she won't be able to lose it."

"Xiao Jiu, Hongmen Lane is so short, why can't I see the end?"

"..." Zhou Yi's brain seemed to explode.

She couldn't bear it, and stuffed the things all over the floor under the bed, wanting to leave here.

As soon as her hand was on the ground, a dry and warm hand suddenly brushed past her neck and rested on her shoulder.

Zhou Yi buzzed in his head, and quickly turned around.

Mu Qinglin didn't wake up, her hand was just accidentally put on her when she turned over and lay on her side.

Ah…

Zhou Yi smiled silently, reacting from the astonishment.

She thought that her peaceful life was about to start to become chaotic again.

Zhou Yi leaned back against the bed, turned her head to look at the hand that knocked her chaotic emotions away.

Slender and fair, with well-proportioned joints, bending a natural arc when drooping.

She remembered that although this hand had strong bones, it was warm and soft to hold, and it felt very secure.

Zhou Yi's heavy heart beat suddenly, she clenched and loosened her hands on her legs, wiped her palms on her pants, then lifted them up, and carefully passed between Mu Qinglin's thumb and fingertips , took her hand.

At that moment, my heart was really at ease.

—

Mu Qinglin "woke up" an hour later, Zhou Yi had completely recovered her composure, and just put her hands back under the quilt.

"You only slept for a while?" Zhou Yi asked in surprise.

Mu Qinglin sat up, clenched his fist and knocked on his dull forehead, "Wake up naturally after dinner."

Zhou Yi wanted to say, "This is how the reincarnation of a starving ghost is like this", but when she saw her hands hanging down with sharp knuckles, she quietly closed her mouth.

"It's so quiet today, are you dumb?" Mu Qinglin raised her head and asked her.

Zhou Yi averted his eyes and muttered softly, "You're the only one who is dumb."

Mu Qinglin got off the bed with a smile, saw a corner of something under the bed from the corner of her eye, pushed it in silently with her foot, and said to Zhou Yi, "I'm going back to work."

"Hmm..." Zhou Yi responded, seeing her turn around, his eyes suddenly panicked, and when Mu Qinglin noticed, he stopped and asked her, "What's the matter?"

Zhou Yi hesitated to speak, "You..."

"Me what?"

"Can you really help me find a school?"

Mu Qinglin's eyes flickered, and he quickly laughed, "I love to tease you, so when did I lie to you?"

"You are lying to me when you say you are so poor that you drink the northwest wind."

"Stupid or not, that's just teasing you."

"Isn't this?" Zhou Yi was not confident.

Mu Qinglin looked solemn, "As long as you nod your head, within a week, I will let you sit in the classroom of the third year of high school."

Zhou Yi looked directly into Mu Qinglin's eyes.

After a long time, he said firmly, "Okay. Mu Qinglin, help me, I want to go to school."

"Okay, but I still want to ask..." Mu Qinglin narrowed his eyes slightly, "Have you figured it all out?"

Zhou Yi, "Hmm..."

"What do you want to understand?"

"I don't want Lu Chang to die in peace, I don't want people to look down on me, I don't want people to spit on my parents' coffin, and..."

"What else?" Mu Qinglin asked.

Zhou Yi clasped her hands, turned her head to look at the towering office building of Provincial Taiwan, and hummed, "I don't want to be the worst among your friends."