looking back inadvertently

On the day Liang He left, just after the new year, Shen Zhe prepared to take a taxi to the airport with Liang Zheng and his son as agreed.

When they met at the gate of "Tianyuan", Shen Zhe handed Liang He a square box.Inside the box is a pair of premium headphones with white wires and a touch of blue on the back of the earbuds.

"I gave it to you in advance, a birthday present." Shen Zhe tried to keep his tone calm, "I can't make it." Liang He's birthday is still three weeks away.

"Thank you." After he took the earphones, he didn't put them away immediately, but asked Shen Zhe, "Can I turn them on now?"

"of course can."

Liang Zheng got a car and motioned for them to come up.In the car, Liang Zheng was sitting in the passenger seat, Liang He and Shen Zhe were next to each other in the back row.

Liang He took out the Walkman he had brought to school from his carry-on bag, and replaced the old earphones with the one Shen Zhe had just given him.

"Listen to music?" Liang He asked casually.

With a somewhat familiar tone and scene, Shen Zhe remembered that Liang He asked himself this question before an evening self-study class.

"What song is it?"

"Actually, I don't know either." Liang He shook the fuselage, not intending to open it to check, "Just listen to it."

Usually, he mainly uses another device for listening to English. He hasn’t used this listening device since Qin Ying was hospitalized, and he himself forgot what tape was in it.

Shen Zhe nodded, and tacitly picked up one of the ear wires.

The electric guitar accompaniment and drums with a strong sense of rhythm rush straight into the ear, an old song, it seems to be called "Norwegian Forest".Shen Zhe felt that everything from the lyrics to the melody was a bit earthy. Only the pop songs of the 90s can be so straightforward, without hiding any emotions.

He glanced sideways at Liang He, the man's eyes were facing out of the window, his face was expressionless, only the fingers on his knees were tapping from time to time.

Suddenly the other party turned around, their eyes collided, and Shen Zhe was embarrassed for a moment.Liang He chuckled: "The earphones you picked are really good."

"That's right," Shen Zhe suddenly felt relaxed, "I still did some homework."

Cars drive along the main road, and the air above the city, which is already heavily polluted, is more like a layer of dirty cloth towels in winter, always gray.The city view seen through the car window is bleak and chilling.

The airport is located on the outskirts of the city, so it’s not too far away. Before the songs were playing in my ears, the car was parked aside, and the driver said to them, “We’re here.”

This flight of Liang Zheng and Liang He is to Shanghai, and they will go through customs and transit after arriving in Shanghai.

Shen Zhe, who saw off alone, had to return later on his own.Liang Zheng felt a little guilty, and took advantage of the early hour to invite the two children to have breakfast at the airport.

The sound of the airport announcement and the hurried footsteps of passers-by continued to flow in my ears. These noisy noises seemed to activate the acceleration mode for the originally less urgent time, urging them not to forget to travel far.

"I'm going to the bathroom." Coming out of the porridge shop for breakfast, Liang Zheng said to Liang He, "Look at your luggage."

"En." Liang He and Shen Zhe nodded at the same time.

Liang Zheng looked at Shen Zhe again embarrassedly, this child probably wanted to watch the luggage with Liang He.

There were quite a lot of people in the bathroom, and the two of them did not follow. They stood behind a thick pillar a short distance away, and backpacks and suitcases of different sizes were piled up on the luggage cart beside them.

After Liang Zheng's back was completely gone, Liang He's gaze fell back on Shen Zhe again.

Shen Zhe was also looking at him, and could even feel the breath exhaled by the other party, which was close at hand, carrying a higher than normal body temperature.The airflow generated by another person's chest gathered into a pressure and gradually rushed towards him, Shen Zhe suddenly regained his senses.

It's too close.Liang He seemed to be getting close to him on purpose, or was it unintentional?The skin of the opponent's face seemed to become transparent, with irregular blue veins looming.

What happens when you ignore it?

After the vague guesses took shape, Shen Zhe's heart was filled with uneasiness, and strange expectations arose—expectations that shouldn't be had.

Liang He did not continue to approach.What is their closest distance?How many centimeters, or closer?However, at that moment, the tip of Liang He's nose suddenly turned around, and the hot air between his lips lingered in Shen Zhe's ears, before dissipating in an instant.

The pressure is gone.

"Shen Zhe, goodbye," Liang He raised his right hand and pressed his shoulder, "Take care." Then he turned his back completely.

Liang Zheng had already come out of the bathroom, waving not far away.

Liang He turned his back to Shen Zhe, he was a little bit hesitant to take a step, he didn't know if he should bid farewell at this point, and ran in another direction.

"Don't look back!" Shen Zhe regained his senses, his unexplained expectations faded, and he said loudly, "Liang He, go find uncle."

But his throat was choked, and his voice began to tremble: "Don't... don't look back."

He watched the man pushing the cart, his footsteps gradually accelerated from hesitation at the beginning, and the man was getting farther and farther away from him.

"Liang He, goodbye." This sentence can only be heard by himself.

Liang He lay on his back on the lawn.The middle school lunch break in the United States is too short, so he can only stay in school and wait for the afternoon classes.

There were no trees around, and the afternoon sun was so warm and brilliant that it almost poured down on his head. Even with his eyes closed, he could still feel the omnipresent golden light floating around his body.

The temperature is not high, but the light is too harsh.After a while, he couldn't help but sat up and passively opened his eyes.A group of students with Western faces passed him noisily.

Liang He always felt that although Westerners have different hair colors, they all look similar, and it is difficult to have a deep impression on a certain face. I wonder if they see Asians in the same way.

After the voices of those students disappeared, Liang He saw a Chinese girl coming from the direction they were going away.

The girl's name is Yao Jie, and she is the only Chinese in Liang He's class besides him.Yao Jie came here half a year earlier than him.Perhaps because it is rare to meet a fellow countryman in a strange place, the two got to know each other very quickly, and often chatted together during breaks, although most of the time it was Yao Jie who was talking.

Liang He didn't know whether she was extroverted or bored among foreigners, and finally met a Chinese student who liked to talk to him about everything.

It was also through those trivial and lengthy words that he learned that she had a boy she liked very much in China, who was a former classmate, but the boy hurt her and had an affair with another girl while dating her.Later they broke up and Yao Jie also left the country.

"Do you have a lot of puppy love in your school?" During the chat this time, Yao Jie asked Liang He with some boring gossip.

"I don't know." Liang He didn't care about these things, "Anyway, the teachers in our class used to be strict, no one would dare."

"Our teacher doesn't care much," she was surprised by what Liang He said, "what about you?"

"what?"

"Have you ever liked someone?" She smiled sheepishly, "It seems that you always listen to my nagging, and I have never understood you."

"I..." Liang He didn't say another word for a long time.

"Can't tell? Still don't know how to judge?" Yao Jie looked up at the clear blue sky, "Let me tell you a simple method. When you wake up from a deep sleep in the middle of the night, the first person that pops up in your mind... must be special."

Liang He had never heard of this method of judgment, nor could he think of it.Girls are probably more delicate and keen on association, able to connect seemingly unrelated things together.However, in his opinion, it is not very credible.

"You don't believe it?" Yao Jie could see his true thoughts, "Because waking up suddenly in the middle of the night is when people are most vulnerable mentally. If you can think of someone, it means that you are subconsciously dependent on the other person."

Liang He felt even more mysterious.Who will he think of?Recently, it seems that he sleeps until dawn, because he has to prepare breakfast and drive the car by himself, so he will not stay in bed, and he will go to the ground the second after waking up.

But Yao Jie's "theory" still had an impact on him.Liang He couldn't sleep well that night, and seemed to consciously want to wake up in the middle of the night.

He was stuck in a light dream and couldn't get out of his body.Someone called him from behind, and when he turned around, the figure suddenly reached out to him and said to him, "I'm with you."

Liang He suddenly opened his eyes.The shadow of the other party has not yet faded from his mind, and the low wall of the school playground and the broken fence also floated up around the figure.

Sure enough, it's a lie.

How could it be Shen Zhe.

The author says:

There is still a chapter of transition, and then I will jump forward to returning to China