damaged

When she walked to the door, Zhang Ailin looked at the place where Meng Wenjun usually waited for her.

He didn't come today.

"Alright." Zhang Ailin said silently in her heart.

It's better to stay away.If you stay far away, you don't need to see him, and you don't need to think of him.Many things that are unclear and unclear can also be left behind.

"Zhang Ailin!"

Zhang Ailin heard Zhou Zhou's voice behind her.Turning around, Zhou Zhou was running towards her in a hurry.

"Why did you disappear in a blink of an eye?" Zhou Zhou blamed.

"I thought you were gone." Zhang Ailin said.

"How could I leave!" Zhou Zhou's voice was a little higher.

Zhang Ailin turned around, and Zhou Zhou hurriedly followed.

The two walked together like this.

Zhou Zhou felt as if he had knocked over a five-flavored bottle, and his cheeks were burning red.

With both hands clasped tightly on the schoolbag straps of the backpack, he looked down earnestly at the hem of his skirt swinging back and forth with his legs.

Zhang Ailin, who was walking beside her, looked calmer than Zhou Zhou.

"It's so short." Zhang Ailin said silently in her heart.She secretly glanced at Zhou Zhou next to her out of the corner of her eye, and saw other small fish pins in her hair.I am used to Meng Wenjun walking next to me, but I am a different person today, and I feel a little uncomfortable.

"I have to say something..." Zhou Zhou heard such a voice in his mind.

Zhou Zhou raised his head, with a smile on his face, and said, "Is that boy who has been walking with you your boyfriend?"

...?

This question made Zhang Ailin almost lose her footing.

"Why do you think so?" Zhang Ailin asked back.

"You guys have been walking together, and you don't care about anyone except him." Zhou Zhou explained.

"It can be regarded as a classmate relationship." Zhang Ailin thought of Meng Wenjun, curled her lips, and said dissatisfied.

Zhou Zhou nodded, and gave a soft "hmm", feeling an inexplicable emotion in his heart.A little relieved, a little secretly happy.On the surface, he still pretended to be calm.

"Does Irene have a boyfriend?" Zhou Zhou asked suddenly.

Zhou Zhou was so surprised that he didn't even know how he asked the question.

Zhang Ailin looked ahead, her steps alternated constantly, but she remained silent and did not answer.

The embarrassment in Zhou Zhou's heart took root in Zhang Ailin's silence.

"I don't like boys."

It took a long time for Zhang Ailin to spit out these words slowly.Like a nuclear bomb exploded in Zhou Zhou's heart.

"Ah... yes, is that what I understand?" Zhou Zhou asked stammeringly, swallowing his saliva.

Zhang Ailin glanced at Zhou Zhou calmly and said, "I don't know."

Unexpectedly frank.

"Then... does Irene have a girl he likes?" Zhou Zhou asked cautiously.Even though she knew she shouldn't ask such a boundary-breaking question, she couldn't help it.

"I don't know." Zhang Ailin said coldly.

"Are you angry...?" Zhou Zhou secretly glanced at Zhang Ailin's face, and said silently in his heart.

That didn't look like a look of impatience.

Zhang Ailin just doesn't understand what is meant by "like".When Zhou Zhou was asking questions, she was thinking very sincerely in her mind.But can't find a related message.

To Zhou Zhou, these words were ambiguous and difficult to distinguish.But she didn't dare to ask any more questions.

"What is liking?" Zhang Ailin asked seriously with a serious face.

Zhou Zhou froze for a moment, then slowly said: "Like...it should mean that you will be happy when you see something or someone."

"I am very happy to meet Bu Congming." Zhang Ailin said.

Zhou Zhou burst out laughing and said, "I am also very happy to see him. Everyone should be very happy to see him."

"Does it mean that everyone likes Bu Congming?" Zhang Ailin asked.

Zhou Zhou's laughter became more presumptuous, and she shook her head: "That's not what it means. You don't understand at all."

Zhou Zhou found Zhang Ailin's inexplicable expression very interesting.Zhou Zhou didn't understand how there would be someone who couldn't even tell how he liked it.

"Then do you understand?" Zhang Ailin continued to ask.

"Of course I know. This is what everyone knows since I was in elementary school." Zhou Zhou recalled the bursts of booing from his classmates when he was in elementary school.

"Are you someone you like?"

Zhou Zhou's smile stopped abruptly and froze on his face.

Zhang Ailin caught a glimpse of Zhou Zhou's change of expression and said, "Then why do you say you understand?"

what is likewho do i like

Do I like Chen Zhan?

Do I like Zhang Ailin?

what is like

This question suddenly sank in Zhou Zhou's heart.

The silence between the two began to overflow like a viscous liquid.

Suddenly, Zhang Ailin stopped, stretched out her finger and pointed in the direction opposite to the direction the two were traveling, and asked, "Isn't your home over there?"

Zhou Zhou tried his best to be calm, suppressed the surprise in his heart, and asked, "How do you know?"

"I've been with you before. Just remember it." When Zhang Ailin said this, she was somewhat embarrassed.

She was referring to the time when it was raining and followed Zhou Zhou and Xiao Hua to ask about Jiang Man's whereabouts.

Recalling the heavy rain that day, Zhang Ailin still felt a dull pain in her shoulders, and subconsciously twisted her neck.

"Oh." Zhou Zhou replied simply.

"Then, goodbye then?" Zhang Ailin looked down at Zhou Zhou and waved her hands.

Zhou Zhou was angry and annoyed, he couldn't help frowning, and his tone revealed dissatisfaction: "Goodbye?"

"You want to go home, and I want to go home too." Zhang Ailin said.

Zhou Zhou thought he understood, it meant that she didn't intend to go with him.

But in Zhang Ailin's eyes, she didn't consider this at all.You go your way, I go mine, don't you all go home.

Although he didn't quite understand what Zhou Zhou meant, Zhou Zhou's face was filled with an expression of sudden realization.So Zhang Ailin repeated again: "Goodbye."

Also waved.Waving in front of Zhou Zhou's eyes.

"Goodbye." Zhou Zhou responded to Zhang Ailin.After saying that, he walked in the opposite direction to her without looking back.

Zhang Ailin looked at Zhou Zhou's back.

"It just doesn't feel right..." she murmured.

……

As soon as he finished the task assigned by Mo Chang, Meng Wenjun ran to the school gate without stopping.

Standing in the same place as usual, looking towards the exit of the teaching building.Sparse silhouettes.

Waiting to go home from class with Zhang Ailin is the most meaningful moment of Meng Wenjun's day.He leaned on the upright marble column, panting slightly.Just now I was running too fast, sweating profusely from running.

Meng Wenjun took out his mobile phone from his pocket, and carefully read the messages in the SMS box of the mobile phone.Arlene didn't send a text message today saying she was going to leave first.

"Hey, Wenjun is here again?" The old man in the guard room at the door greeted Meng Wenjun with a smile.

Meng Wenjun also waved at him familiarly.

After that, he stood still in place just like in the past.Repeatedly doing appointments over and over again.

It's a stupid thing to do.

Until the sky became dark and the lights in front of the door came on.

"Wenjun, I'm still waiting. Why don't you make a phone call?" The old man in the guard room looked at Meng Wenjun not far away through the glass, swallowed the dinner his wife brought, and turned to the same man next to him. The uncle in uniform said.

The uncle followed his gaze and saw Meng Wenjun's lonely back, looking a little desolate.

"I don't know, why don't we ask?"

Holding the chopsticks in his hand, the old man waved his hand, took another bite of the steamed bun, and said vaguely, "Forget it, never mind. It's not the first time this has happened."

Meng Wenjun picked up the phone and looked at the time again.

It's late.

He stretched his legs, took two steps back, and knocked on the window of the guard room, wanting to say something to the uncle inside.

The old man had already gotten used to it, and he waved his hand to express his permission without even listening.

Meng Wenjun smiled at him, and said through the window, "Thank you."

Afterwards, he walked into the teaching building, climbed upstairs, and went straight to Zhang Ailin's classroom.

On Zhang Ailin's seat, her bag was gone.

Only then did Meng Wenjun dare to confirm that she had really left.

He stepped forward, stretched out his hand, and slowly slid across the desk with his fingertips.

"Arlene," he said painfully.

When Zhang Ailin called him Ah Ding again, the wound in his heart was suddenly torn open again.

In just a few short days, to him, every minute and every second seemed to be bound, tied to a thick log, placed on a fire, and burned.

Every minute and every second he once spent with Zhang Ailin shuttled back and forth in his mind like a revolving lantern.

What makes him feel extremely painful is that that happiness is within reach of him, but he wants to drive her to the opposite place.

Already hurting Arlene, how dare she ask for a response.Feeling guilty, he dared not speak up.Just wait until dark.Waiting in the void that no one knows.

In the darkness is the sound of Meng Wenjun's breathing.

Taking advantage of the light coming through the window, he bent down and reached out to pick up the trash bag placed under Zhang Ailin's desk, and threw it into the trash can behind the door, and then gently closed the back door of the classroom.

"I'm sorry, sir." When he reached the place where there was light, Meng Wenjun raised his kind face and waved to the security room.

The old security guard had already had his meal and cleared the table.

He watched Meng Wenjun leave the school, and what he heard was opera playing on the radio.

Attracted by the light from the guard booth, many small mosquitoes gathered in the corner, fluttering their wings, trying to get into the glass.

The old security guard burped, babbling and humming along, his eyes staring at the glass in ecstasy.His own shadow reflected in the glass.

The virtual image overlapped with Meng Wenjun in the distance, and it seemed that he had been slightly glazed here.

……

Zhang Ailin, who was sleeping, was awakened by the sudden ringing of the phone.

She raised her hand and touched her phone: "Hello?"

On the phone was Wang Bing's nervous and hasty voice: "Hello? Zhang Ailin? Where are you? Is Zhou Zhou with you this afternoon?"

"Ah, yes." Zhang Ailin replied hoarsely, her throat was as dry as if it was being burned.

"Where did she go then?" Wang Bing asked, almost following her voice.

"I don't know, shouldn't she go back to her home?"

"When was the last time you saw her?"

"It was just after school. What's the matter, didn't you go home?" Zhang Ailin asked.

Wang Bing hesitated for a long time on the other end of the phone, repeatedly weighing whether to tell Zhang Ailin, causing unnecessary panic.

"Hello?" Zhang Ailin called again in a hurry.

"No," Wang Bing said, "Can you contact her?"