The Boyfriend Who I’ve Never Met

The weather is getting warmer gradually.

The willows beside the stone bridge in the small town were stripped, and the branches were tender and green, reflecting the clear and moving water of the river under the bridge.

Xie Tao cleaned up the molds on hand, put on gloves and brought out the rich-scented cake from the oven. When she turned around, she was accidentally pierced by the setting sun spilling in from the window.

She squinted her eyes.

"Xiao Tao, do you have any shortbread candy today?"

A middle-aged woman suddenly appeared at the gate.

She dressed very plainly, neatly organized, and when she was smiling, a deep crease appeared at the end of her eyes.

She is considered a frequent visitor at Fujia Cake Shop.

"Auntie Qian, you are late, and today's shortbread candies are sold out!"

Xie Tao put the cake on the table, took off his gloves, and replied.

"Ouch! Going to grocery shopping today is delayed!" The woman surnamed Qian patted her clothes.

Xie Tao smiled, "I'll save you a copy tomorrow, you remember to come and get it early."

"Is the peanut right?" Xie Tao took the notebook next to her and planned to write it down.

"Yes, yes!" The woman who was frowning just now laughed again, "Thank you, Xiaotao!"

Xie Tao smiled, lowered his head and took the notes.

Not long after Aunt Qian left, another middle-aged woman walked into the shop with her little high heels.

She wore fancy clothes and curled her hair. She was a little blessed, but she was red and smiling.

Xie Tao was spreading chocolate hazelnut butter on the baked cake. Hearing the sound of high heels, she saw the familiar face when she looked up.

She is the owner of this Fujia cake shop-Ms. Fu Miaolan.

"Auntie Fu, are you back?"

Xie Tao was smiling originally, but when she saw the tall middle-aged man who walked in behind Fu Miaolan, the smile on her face gradually froze, and her eyes were full of consternation. Even the movements of his hands stopped.

"Peach..."

It wasn't until Fu Miaolan came over to call her that Xie Tao managed to recover in a trance.

When she raised her eyes, she met the middle-aged man's gaze looking at her.

The afterglow of the setting sun spreading outside the gate shone on his shoulders, making his figure look taller and thinner.

When Xie Tao was stunned, the man had already walked in front of her, stood in front of the counter, and called her name clearly and accurately, "Xie Tao."

Across the counter, Xie Tao lowered her eyes when she heard his voice, her expression flickering, standing there seemed a little at a loss, she didn't even dare to meet his gaze.

"Taotao, Mr. Zheng is here to see you, so you have to say a few words to someone." Fu Miaolan walked in through the small sliding door on the other side of the counter and patted her on the shoulder.

Xie Tao pursed her lips, and grasped the glass jar of jam in her hand, not like the lively appearance that Fu Miaolan was used to in her daily life.

After a while, she moved her lips, "Uncle Zheng..."

Her voice is a little faint.

"Xie Tao, go out and talk." Zheng Wenhong said.

Xie Tao lowered her eyes, as if hesitating for a while, then put down the things in her hand, took off her gloves and sleeves, and simply adjusted her sleeves, then took the jacket next to her and walked out.

The teahouse at the east end of Qizhen Town is standing on the edge of the moat. The trees and willows beside the river just smoked. When the tender green paper is flying in the wind, if you sit by the window on the second floor of the teahouse and stretch out your hand, Can fold a twig of willow.

Xie Tao and Zheng Wenhong sat at the table on the second floor of the tea house. Both of them were holding a cup of hot tea, but at first they were strangely silent.

Zheng Wenhong calmly looked at the girl sitting across from him.

Maybe it’s because in early spring, the weather in Houqi Town was a bit cooler at dusk. The girl was wearing a thin sweater and a thin white-washed coat outside. The white face was also carrying some baby fat, and a pair of apricot eyes were clear. It's clean, she looks petite and petite, and it doesn't seem to be any different from what she looked like when she ran away a year ago.

Zheng Wenhong knows very well that this girl who looks well-behaved and soft actually has a stubborn heart.

In the end, it was Zheng Wenhong who spoke first, "This year, are you... okay?"

"Very good." Xie Tao took a sip while holding the teacup, the tea was slightly scalded with a slightly fragrant scent, and it was a little warm.

Zheng Wenhong seemed to have no idea what to say for a while, he just nodded, "That's good..."

More than a year ago, when she first came to Qizhen, Su Linghua began to worry about her daughter being alone when she left Xie Tao, but her cowardice and fear made her feel unable to face it, so she could only let her Zheng Wenhong came here to find Xie Tao and take her back.

But Xie Tao decisively refused.

Since then, Xie Tao refused to contact them again.

And the lack of contact for a year made it even more difficult for him and her to talk.

Xie Tao looked at the man facing him with her eyes down and falling silent.

Even though Zheng Wenhong has reached middle age, his eyebrows have already been stained with traces of wind and frost, but it is not difficult to see the correct and handsome features of his facial features when he was young.

But Xie Tao took a closer look and found that compared to the appearance of the Uncle Zheng in her memory a year ago, it seemed to be a little more vicissitudes of life.

Many things came to mind a year ago, and her mother's face never seemed to fade in her mind.

"Xie Tao, come back with me."

Zheng Wenhong finally said this sentence.

At that time, there was wind blowing outside the window, and the rustle of willow branches and leaves became clearer in the surrounding silence.

"Uncle Zheng, I have a good time here." Xie Tao said, holding the tea cup.

"Xie Tao, are you really planning to stay here for the rest of your life?" Zheng Wenhong tried to persuade her, "You are still at the age you should go to school... There is no high school in Qizhen. You always have to plan for your own life."

Xie Tao nodded, "Uncle Zheng, I know what you want to say, and I don't mean to give up school. I will return to school, but not now."

In the bank card in her drawer, there was not enough tuition for three years after returning to school.

As for the money Zheng Wenhong and Su Linghua successively hit her card, she was useless.

"Xie Tao, you are underage. Tuition shouldn't be something you worry about. Your mother and I will take care of everything for you..."

"Uncle Zheng, I don't want to go back to Nanshi."

Before Zheng Wenhong finished speaking, Xie Tao interrupted him.

That night a year ago, since she was carrying her schoolbag and boarding the train back to Qizhen, Xie Tao had no plans to return to Nanshi.

It was a place where she had never had any fond memories.

She never missed it.

"It seems that you are still blaming your mother..."

Zheng Wenhong was silent for a while, then suddenly sighed.

Zheng Wenhong also knows a little bit about the affairs between Xie Tao and her mother Su Linghua.

Zheng Wenhong remembered the way his wife sometimes hid in the room secretly wiping her tears, and he said, "For the past year, she has always been restless at night. Sometimes when she falls asleep, she will still say your name in her dreams, repeating Say, she shouldn't hit you..."

Yes, Su Linghua played Xie Tao more than once.

After Xie Tao struggled to choose between his parents, and after Xie Tao's father Xie Zhengyuan left silently, Su Linghua took Xie Tao to Nanshi.

During that time, Su Linghua became very irritable.

Xie Tao was beaten more than once for various reasons.

Sometimes it’s because of academic performance, and sometimes it’s because of other little things.

She became Xie Tao's strangest appearance.

A woman who is stubborn about a failed marriage, complains and abandons herself, even hysterical.

For a while, Xie Tao even felt that when her mother looked at her, there was love in her often red eyes, but hatred was also hidden.

That hate is hatred for that man.

When her mother liked her, she combed her hair and bought a nice dress. When her mother didn't like her, she scolded her, scolded her father, and pulled her arm blue and purple.

Sometimes my mother was drunk and slapped her mouth, which would make the corners of her mouth crack and bleed. Sometimes, she would have sharp tinnitus.

Later, my mother would hold her and cry again.

Saying countless words I'm sorry, saying countless words she was wrong.

Xie Tao came here for two whole years.

Two years later, Su Linghua finally began to slowly accept the fact that her marriage failed and her life was scribbled, and she finally became calm enough.

She even took the initiative to see a psychologist.

After a year of psychotherapy, Su Linghua finally returned to the mother Xie Tao knew best when she was a child.

So gentle, so peaceful.

Xie Tao thought that everything should get better at this point in the story.

But one day, her mother took her by the hand and went to see Zheng Wenhong, a surgeon in a hospital she accidentally met.

That was the first time Xie Tao saw Zheng Wenhong.

Mother told her that she wanted to marry this Uncle Zheng.

Xie Tao still remembers that the smile on her mother's face at that time, it seemed that this woman who had fallen into the mud and couldn't get out of it a few years ago, finally saw hope.

So she has no reason to prevent Su Linghua and Zheng Wenhong from marrying.

But their combination made Xie Tao fall into a new panic.

Because of the mother's deliberate behavior to please her stepson, because of her obvious eccentric behavior, and because of her test results, her mother once again hit her on the cheek on New Year's Eve after a few years.

In the familiar and sharp tinnitus, Xie Tao looked at Zheng Wenhong, Su Linghua, and Zheng Hejia, Zheng Wenhong's son, who were sitting at the dinner table.

It seems that the three of them are the closest family members in this world.

And she is always superfluous.

On that New Year's Eve, she ran away under the threatening words her mother deliberately released, fled the city that panicked and confused her, and returned to Qizhen.

So far, it has been more than a year.

"Uncle Zheng, what I should forgive, has already forgiven her, but there are some things I can't do."

Perhaps because she remembered too much of the past, Xie Tao's eyes were inevitably hot at the moment.

Because Su Linghua deliberately pleased Zheng Hejia, because Su Linghua was partial to Zheng Hejia, because Su Linghua had all kinds of negligence towards her, and even the demanding requirements on her studies.

Because Zheng Hejia has excellent grades, she can't miss him by half a point, otherwise she will be ashamed.

Or maybe it was because that heavy slap on New Year's Eve completely destroyed the faith that had supported her for so many years.

Xie Tao took a deep breath, suppressed the soreness in her heart, and said, "Actually, she was not like this before."

"I remember she told me before that she used to have a job she liked, many hobbies, and many good friends... Although she was tired every day, she felt very happy."

"Until she got married, with me, everything became different. In order to take good care of me, she quit her favorite job, followed her father back to Qizhen, and gradually lost contact with her friends. The focus is on Dad and me..."

"That long marriage made her accustomed to the father’s machismo mode, and she began to become a person without self. And a person without self suddenly lost the most important family, what can she do? "

Zheng Wenhong never expected that Xie Tao, who was still a child in his eyes, could say such a thing.

For a moment, he was stunned, not knowing what to say.

"Uncle Zheng, you have seen her most embarrassed, but you still chose to marry her," Xie Tao raised her head and smiled at Zheng Wenhong, "Although she has only been in your house for less than a year, But I can still feel that you really like her."

Zheng Wenhong and her father Xie Zhengyuan are different people.

Xie Zhengyuan was a good enough father for Xie Tao, but for Su Linghua, he was not a very good husband.

Xie Zhengyuan could do his best to satisfy Xie Tao's wishes, but for Su Linghua, as their marriage grew, he became less concerned about Su Linghua.

Not to mention, support Su Linghua's desire to return to work.

When Xie Tao saw Su Linghua's name in a clothing magazine that day, she knew that Zheng Wenhong was different.

He will be the one who is willing to encourage Su Linghua to return to the fashion design work and find herself.

But he loves Su Linghua, but it doesn't mean that he will love Xie Tao from his heart, who has no blood relationship with him.

Therefore, in front of Xie Tao, this man often seemed too calm, as if he was an outsider.

Thinking of the things that Su Linghua had said before marriage softly and softly in her ears when she was a child, Xie Tao pursed her lips, as if smiling a little, her voice was a little soft, "She likes to wear beautiful dresses. She likes to eat mints, she likes to cook midnight snacks when she is half asleep at night, and she likes to go out singing with her friends...

Xie Tao suddenly stood up and bowed to Zheng Wenhong, "Uncle Zheng, I hope you can make her live a happy day."

No need to remember the previous failed marriage that made her lose herself, lose friends, and lose happiness, and no longer put the focus of life on others.

What if it's halfway through life? It's not too late to let everything start again.

There were occasional bird sounds outside the window. Zheng Wenhong looked at the girl standing opposite to him, and he hadn't spoken for a long time.

After a while, he spoke slowly, his voice a little bit dry inexplicably, "I must... will."

When Xie Tao returned to Fujia Cake Shop, it was already raining finely.

"I'm back?" Fu Miaolan walked out of the room, and when she saw Xie Tao, she walked over and asked her, "Did you see your mother?"

Xie Tao froze for a moment, "My mom?"

When Fu Miaolan saw her like this, she was a little anxious, "You didn't see your mother? That can't be. At that time, I saw her coming with Mr. Zheng on the other side of the bridge. I thought you and Mr. Zheng I saw her when I went out."

Xie Tao stood there, a roar in his head.

"Taotao, there are some things, I can't hide it from you anymore. Half of the money you have made with me this year is your mother asked Mr. Zheng to call me... They won't let me tell you. But Taotao, it's not a problem that you always stay in Qizhen. You have to go to school and take the university entrance exam. That's your way out."

Fu Miaolan finally said what she had kept in her heart for a long time, and patted Xie Tao on the shoulder again, "Tao Tao, go home."

Xie Tao was stuck in her thoughts, and she couldn't quite hear Fu Miaolan's words. The next moment, she suddenly rushed out of the gate, got on her bike, and started to drive towards Qizhen Station.

The road in Qizhen is a stone road, and there are always so many uneven places.

She didn't notice the missing corner of the bluestone slab in front. The bicycle wheel pressed over and bumped. She suddenly recovered, but it was too late. She even fell to the ground with a car and her mobile phone fell into a puddle.

Her elbows and knees were scratched, and the back of her hand was bleeding, but Xie Tao could not care about so much, she was about to get up after enduring the pain.

But when she raised her head, she didn't know what was going on, and she saw a stream of light-colored rays faintly emerging in the air.

As the air surging, a looming light curtain was formed.

In the light curtain, it seemed that a hand had crushed something. She only had time to see that the fragment seemed to fly out of the light curtain. At the same time, it seemed to have broken through an insurmountable gap. The light curtain was in a blink of an eye. It turned into a light like a thin line.

In the blur, she seemed to see a slender and tall back, and the hem of the dark red brocade robe was glowing with brilliant light.

The light of the aperture suddenly became more dazzling. While she couldn't help blinking her eyes, the fragment that appeared out of thin air wiped her left eyelid, leaving a blood stain, and it fell on the phone in the puddle on the ground. In an instant, there was no trace of ablation.