Manhattanhenge

After reading all the letters, Su Hui still couldn't hold back the tears.

"When did you make it up secretly..." He couldn't help but raised his hand, wiped away his tears with the back of his hand, and couldn't help laughing again.

How could he hide it so well.

Ning Yixiao usually writes very quickly, in order to save time, both Chinese and English are written very sloppy and smooth, but these letters he writes very slowly, stroke by stroke, very serious, with clear bones.

He obviously cares about time so much, but he is willing to take time to fill in the handwritten letters one by one for him. Every letter corresponds to every thing that Su Hui wrote in the letter. Tell him all night.

All the invalid letters in those years were sent to him in circles, and all of them were answered.

All the plots are like a jigsaw puzzle, disrupted by Ning Yixiao, and they are reassembled into completely different plots - they are no longer fateful lovers, and they have not experienced heart-wrenching ruptures and separations, just like Ning Yixiao said. Yes, they were temporarily trapped in two incompatible space-time vicious circles, and communication was the only link to maintain it, but there was a deviation in the transmission of signals, so they temporarily missed it.

Su Hui, who was shattered by the days in the past, seems to have been pieced together.

He cherished all the letters in envelopes and put them in his backpack.

[Kitten: Where are you?I want to see you]

Not long after, Ning Yixiao replied to the message.

[puppy: share address]

[puppy: The restaurant invested by Jingming, just met with the project partner, have you had dinner, do you want to come over? ]

The address of the restaurant is very close to Su Hui School.

[Kitten: Good!I'll be right there. ]

After replying to the message, Su Hui left the building and was about to ride a bicycle there when she saw a little girl selling flowers by the side of the road. Without hesitation, she bought a large bunch of champagne roses in her hand and put them in the front basket of the bicycle. Ride away.

He rode so fast that he forgot to wear his coat, and his sea blue shirt embraced the wind, walking through the dull and rushing turbulent crowd like a nimble fish.Loaded with love, all days of desolation and loneliness are left behind, gone forever.

In the restaurant, Ning Yixiao got up, bowed his head slightly, bid farewell to the partner, and glanced out the French window, just in time to see Su Hui riding a bicycle across the road, his white hair was blown by the wind, his clean and plump face under the twilight, blue The shirt, a basket of roses in light gold, is as free as a mountain breeze.

Because of this, Ning Yixiao was a little distracted, and thought of Su Hui riding a bicycle looking for temples, and his mind was floating.But in the next second, Su Hui, who was holding flowers, ran towards him with her bag on her back, and hugged him.

"Ning Yixiao."

Su Hui raised her face, put her hand holding the flower on Ning Yixiao's back, her voice was still panting, "I'm back."

Ning Yixiao lowered his head, rubbed Su Hui's hair, and hugged him back, "Yeah."

He realized that he didn't understand what he meant the first time.Su Hui stood on tiptoe, approached Ning Yixiao's ear, and said softly, "I said, I'm back by your side."

Ning Yixiao understood this time, he fixedly looked into Su Hui's eyes, his expression relaxed inadvertently, and he smiled, as if he had returned to his early twenties, with the unstoppable youthfulness.

"you saw it."

Su Hui nodded, "I've seen all of them, every letter."

He buried his head in Ning Yixiao's chest, and said "Thank you" and "Love you" in a muffled voice. Su Hui didn't raise his head until he heard a cough, only then did he realize that there was someone else beside him. Many table guests are also looking at them.

Su Hui suddenly realized that she had forgotten herself too much, so she immediately distanced herself and withdrew from Ning Yixiao's arms.

"This is for you..." Su Hui felt a little embarrassed, and stuffed the flower into Ning Yixiao's arms.

Jingming smiled, "It's okay, go ahead, I like to watch this kind of thing." After speaking, he glanced at Ning Yixiao who was dressed formally, then at Su Hui, and said to Ning Yixiao, "I don't know. I thought you were dating a high school student."

Ning Yixiao didn't refute, but instead added fuel, "Teacher Su really looks like a child."

After speaking, he stretched out his hand, "Is the schoolbag heavy? Take it off and put it inside."

"This is not a schoolbag." Su Hui retorted softly, sat down next to Ning Yixiao, took off the backpack and put it on her lap.

"What kind of treasure are you pretending to be? You're still here." Jing Ming deliberately teased him.

Su Hui took a sip of water, and whispered something in Ning Yixiao's ear.Jing Ming felt squeezed out by the young couple, and was about to complain, but unexpectedly, he discovered that Ning Yixiao's reaction was not quite right either.

His ears are actually red? ?

What a shocking spectacle!

"What, show me!" Jing Ming's curiosity was completely aroused, "I also want to hear what you guys are whispering."

Su Hui shook her head, imitating Ning Yixiao's words, "Noway."

After dinner, the two bid farewell to Jingming and went home.Ning Yixiao took off the windbreaker and put it on Su Hui's shoulders so that the driver wouldn't pick it up.Ning Yixiao helped him push the cart, and Su Hui walked beside him. He talked a lot, and he couldn't help but add a lot of gestures when he was excited. The two walked back slowly, like every campus couple in college, and like them for six years. forward.

While waiting for the red light, Su Hui asked softly if he could have a kiss.Ning Yixiao didn't hesitate, he lowered his head and kissed Su Hui's lips when the bus roared by.

For a moment of trance, Ning Yixiao even had hallucinations, as if this was an ordinary day in the seventh year of falling in love with Su Hui, there was no crack in the time axis, and they had never been separated for a day.

"I love you." When they separated, Su Hui's pupils were bright, and he was the only one in his eyes.

In the living room of the high-rise apartment, Su Hui put the letters from both of them on the carpet one by one, one by one corresponding to each other, full of joy as if completing a very difficult jigsaw puzzle, and sat in Ning Yixiao's arms , and kiss him.

He panted stickily during the kiss, repeating Ning Yixiao's name.

"Ning Yixiao...I will give you a lot of love..."

"Okay." Ning Yixiao's hand pressed against the curve of his waist, walking in the sound of gradually blending and amplifying breathing.

He asked in the sticky kiss, "Su Hui, have you ever painted me?"

"Yeah." Su Hui was always extraordinarily honest when he was in a state of confusion.

"Draw what? A face?"

"Yes..."

Ning Yixiao rubbed the tip of Su Hui's nose, "Is it just the face? Is there no other place?"

"Hmm...what else?" Su Hui's face was slightly pink, and his shirt was undone, revealing his pink chest.

Ning Yixiao chuckled, "I want it, bring it to me."

They share each other's desires and rub against their palms, like lighting and watching a bonfire at night.

At the deepest point of love, Ning Yixiao admired Su Hui's open lips and subconsciously exposed half of the tip of his tongue from top to bottom, and couldn't help but leaned down and took a bite.

When Su Hui frowned because of the double pain, he said hoarsely, "Su Hui, this is not a hallucination, remember?"

"Well, remember..."

"You whispered in the restaurant, remember?"

"Whisper..."

"Call again."

Su Hui thought for a moment in confusion, then said in a hoarse voice, "...husband."

"good."

After sleeping all night, when Su Hui woke up, he felt that not a single muscle in his body was intact, and his throat was very uncomfortable.

There was no note left on the bedside. It took Su Huilai 15 minutes to get up to wash up. It was difficult for him to walk. He supported the wall all the way to the study room and found no one, so he went downstairs to the living room.

Ning Yixiao was cooking chicken breast in the kitchen, the ice cream was spinning around him, barked twice anxiously, and found that Su Hui had come down, he hurried to Su Hui again, and ran around him.

"woke up?"

Ning Yixiao brought out a cup of warm honey water from the oven and handed it to Su Hui.

"Drink a little."

Su Hui did as he was told, and her voice really felt better, "Aren't you busy today?"

"Well, rest today." Ning Yixiao put the chicken breast on a plate, arranged it for the ice cream, brought out two sandwiches, and added a thick fried egg to Su Hui's.

"What do you want to do? I can accompany you."

Su Hui ate slowly, thinking while eating, staring at Ning Yixiao in front of her while thinking.

There are too many things I want to do, I want to visit his alma mater, see the huge cactus that Ning Yixiao mentioned, I want to accompany him to every speech, I want to visit the seven little elephants who have grown up with him, Glacier climbing in Iceland...

But all these have lower priority than Ning Yixiao herself.What Su Hui wanted to do most was to soothe his wounds that he had always been unable to face, and fill his biggest emotional void.

He stretched out his hand and took Ning Yixiao's hand, "I want to accompany you to tidy up the things left by Auntie."

The surprise on Ning Yixiao's face was obvious, and he paused for a few seconds, trying to say something, as if swallowed by another deep breath.

Su Hui immediately changed his words, "If you don't want to, you can choose another day..."

Seeing Su Hui's cautious face, Ning Yixiao couldn't bear it, and smiled, "Just today."

"Really?" Su Hui was afraid that he would be sad.

Ning Yixiao nodded, "It's not good to leave it all the time, it should be taken out to bask in the sun."

Everyone will be afraid of things that Ning Yixiao can't avoid, except Su Hui.

He also hoped that Su Hui would always be an exception.

Ning Yixiao knew very well that Su Hui's intention was to untie his knot.Just like when he was alone, he would still worship his mother whom he had never met at the beginning of December every year. He was sincere and selfless, not for himself, but for him.

After finishing the coffee in the cup, Ning Yixiao got up and went upstairs, and came down after a while, holding the old box.He came closer and put it on the floor.

When Su Hui saw the relic box, his heart was moved, and he also left the dining table, "I was afraid that you would put it in the bay area."

"I bought this apartment first, and when I moved, someone took it over and put it away, and it hasn't been moved again."

After finishing speaking, Ning Yixiao brought the scissors and handed them to Su Hui, "You can dismantle them."

"Ah?" Su Hui looked up at him, took the scissors, "Okay."

There was still a seal on the box, Su Hui opened it carefully, and the movement was very light. When he opened the carton, the dust was flying in the sun. He was afraid that Ning Yixiao's cleanliness would not be able to bear it, so he found a wet wipe and wiped it again, "Do you want to wear gloves? "

"No need." Ning Yixiao had a calm face and a very light tone.

Su Hui opened the box completely, with complicated emotions in his heart, and suddenly returned to that dark and cold winter.

At that time, Ning Yixiao didn't want to say a word, and he didn't dare to speak.

He knew that Ning Yixiao was unwilling to face it so far, but avoiding it was not the solution, he hoped that he could lead Ning Yixiao through this hurdle, so that he would remember afterwards that there would not be only pain and sadness.

There were not many things in the cardboard box, and what caught my eye were some neatly stacked clothes, including the long white dress that Ning Yixiao had mentioned.

Su Hui took out the skirt, arranged it on the carpet, stroked the fabric with her fingers, and asked Ning Yixiao softly, "Is Auntie tall too? The skirt is so long."

Ning Yixiao nodded, "Well, they all said that my appearance is completely inherited from my mother, whether it's face or stature, it's just a mole at the corner of my eye."

Su Hui looked at him, "No wonder you are so good-looking, it's really hereditary."

The corners of Ning Yixiao's mouth raised slightly, his smile was weak, he couldn't tell whether it was happiness or bitterness.

"This is so cute." Su Hui took out a small plastic toy, which was a puppy with a broken tail.

"This is the only toy I had when I was a child. My mother saved a lot of money and took me to the town to buy it." Ning Yixiao took a look and recalled many past events. It broke."

Su Hui frowned, "Anyone else?"

"Other kids who live nearby." Ning Yixiao said in a flat tone, "They don't like me very much, they snatched it up to play, and smashed it on the ground, breaking it."

Su Hui touched the mark where the puppy's tail was broken, and was a little angry, so he cursed childishly, "It's so annoying."

Ning Yixiao was amused, and stroked his hair soothingly, "It's okay, I didn't like toys at first."

"There is no child who doesn't like toys." Su Hui put the electronic puppy in his arms, raised his head and asked, "Ning Yixiao, can you give this to me?"

"Bad." He emphasized.

"It's okay, my kitten doll is also broken, why don't you keep it all the time?"

Su Hui showed him a soft smile.

Ning Yixiao could not refute, "Okay."

"Can you lend me my mother's skirt?" Su Hui asked.

Ning Yixiao laughed again, "Why, do you want to wear it?"

Su Hui immediately turned serious, "Of course not, how is it possible, I want to borrow it to make a work."

Ning Yixiao stopped joking, "Okay."

"Do you think Auntie would mind?" Su Hui asked cautiously.

"If she is here, she will feel very honored." Ning Yixiao said softly.

Su Hui smiled, clasped his hands together, "Thank you, Auntie."

They sorted out one by one, and Ning Yixiao realized at this time that everything his mother left him was a memory, and he could even feel the smell of his mother in these clothes that had been stored for many years. These relics formed a huge collection. The Proust effect brought him back to his childhood, but not only those painful years, but also the time with his mother.

Perhaps it was because Su Hui was by his side, holding his hand tightly, it seemed that it didn't hurt so much to face all this.

"It's strange." Su Hui looked at the things that were taken out of the box one by one. Even the clothes were arranged according to the four seasons. "I always feel that these are put away on purpose, and they don't seem to be sorted out later."

Ning Yixiao was silent for a moment, but she still spoke, her tone was very certain, "She should have sorted it out in advance."

Su Hui was puzzled, and looked at Ning Yixiao, "Why do you say that?"

Ning Yixiao's eyes were empty, and he looked away, "I told you before, I never went back to that village after I was admitted to high school, and my mother disappeared, and she disappeared with that stepfather. At that time, I thought They are avoiding debts, but when I think about it carefully, although the debt collectors have been bothering me, the stepfather has never appeared again. It was different before. When I was in junior high school, he was always drunk and ran around my school. Block me, and sometimes hit me."

Su Hui couldn't imagine what kind of life Ning Yixiao lived as a child.

"He's very aggressive, and my mother can't hold her back." Ning Yixiao frowned, "It's actually a good thing for me that my stepfather disappeared, so I don't have to worry about it. My mother knows me very well, she knows that I am not They may go back to that place again, and they haven’t been back for many years, and they should be the same. But after her accident, do you remember? The house in my hometown is powered on.”

Su Hui suddenly understood something, but the truth was hard for him to accept.

"It's on...you mean, Auntie went back before she left."

Ning Yixiao nodded, "She is usually reluctant to use electricity, it is impossible to keep it on all the time, not to mention the Lantern Festival she wrapped is still frozen in the refrigerator."

"She knows better than anyone else that if she wants me to go back there, there is only one possibility, that is, if she leaves, I will go back to my hometown according to her wish and scatter her ashes in the sea over there. .”

Su Hui felt cold all over.

She had calculated and prepared everything in advance.

"So that fire..."

"She probably set it off by herself, pretending to be a fire, the only way it won't affect me." Ning Yixiao was very calm, but he guessed it the moment he stood at the police station.

In particular, the police provided the neighbor's testimony, saying that they had a quarrel at home, and the stepfather beat her so hard that she could hardly stand up, and even said threatening words to him in anger, which further verified his conjecture.

"She doesn't want a vicious gambler to become a threat to me for the rest of my life."

Su Hui felt a great sadness in his heart.

It must be so painful to watch herself being swallowed by fire, but for the sake of her child, she has no choice.

"Su Hui, do you think people have an afterlife?" Ning Yixiao asked softly.

Su Hui looked at him, with moist light in his eyes, "I didn't really believe it before, but now I think there should be."

Ning Yixiao chuckled and nodded.

Su Hui understood him very well, grabbed his hand and held it tightly, "One night, Auntie will be very happy in her next life."

"hope so."

At the bottom of the relic box, there is an A6-sized notepad, probably because the cover is too worn, and there is a book cover on the outside.

Ning Yixiao was very familiar with this, "This seems to be my mother's bookkeeping book."

As long as he can remember, he has seen his mother sitting down after a hard day and keeping accounts under the dim light, so he has also learned to keep accounts since he started working part-time.

Ning Yixiao flipped through it, the paper was so old that it turned yellow, and most of the handwriting on it was faded and not very clear, but it could be seen that life was hard and difficult back then.

There are also some receipts in the book. The amount involved is actually pitifully small, but my mother will collect them and write some corresponding records, such as which store it is and who it is related to.

The first half is an account book, and the second half looks like a diary written by his mother. Ning Yixiao flipped through it at random. Most of the records in it were about him and the biological father who had never appeared, for example, he could walk, or he He got No.1 in the exam, or he got sick and had a fever and went to the hospital.

His mother likes to call him [Xiao Xiao], but Ning Yixiao has hated his own name since he was a child, so he refuses to be called that.

It wasn't until Su Hui appeared later and called his name in a sincere and soft way that the shackles of these words were removed.

Su Hui leaned on Ning Yixiao's shoulder and also saw what his mother wrote, his eyes were sharp.After hesitating for a moment, he leaned close to Ning Yixiao's ear, imitating his mother, and called him softly, "Xiaoxiao?"

Ning Yixiao glanced at him, "What are you barking about?"

"Xiao Xiao?" Su Hui's brows and eyes crooked with a smile, "So cute."

"What's cute?" Ning Yixiao pinched his chin, "I'm older than you."

"Just one year old." Su Hui pouted.

"One month older is also older."

Su Hui kissed his hand, "Good brother."

Ning Yixiao didn't expect him to crawl like this, so he couldn't speak for a while, so he had to lower his head and quickly turn the page, skimming the contents of his childhood, so that he didn't have to see the word [Xiaoxiao] written all over the page.

Su Hui leaned on honestly and did not continue to challenge Ning Yixiao's bottom line, but his attention was a little bit off, from the content on the paper to the notebook itself, and suddenly he discovered something.

"What's on it?"

He pointed to the back cover of the book, on which there was a protruding trace in the shape of a small piece of square.

Ning Yixiao stroked it with his fingertips, feeling that something was stuck between the book cover and the book, so he removed the book cover, and an old photo fell out.

Su Hui picked it up and found it was a group photo.In the picture, a woman with a good face and plain clothes is holding a child of one or two years old, and beside her is a tall and thin boy, about sixteen or seventeen years old.

Ning Yixiao did look a lot like his mother, so recognizable at a glance, when he was a child, his face was stubborn, his eyes were bright, and the mole on the corner of his eye added to his misery.

"This is... your mother and you?" Su Hui stared at the far right of the photo, her breathing suddenly became stagnant, "The person on the right..."

He felt familiar, the figure of this person reminded Su Hui of the person he least wanted to see, and the outline of the face was also very similar, but the facial features were not the same.

Ning Yixiao also found out. He took the photo, turned it over, and found that on the back was his mother's handwriting, written in a ballpoint pen [Xiaoxiao and I, and Guan Cheng], followed by a line of the date [7.12].

Guan Cheng?

Ning Yixiao's memory suddenly flashed back to the morning of the next day when he stayed at Su Hui's house.

Xu Zhi drove him that day and mentioned the past in the car, but Ning Yixiao didn't remember it.

[You should have seen me when you were a child, but you were only one or two years old at that time, and you probably forgot. At that time, I was 16 years old and I hugged you. ]

[If it wasn't for her helping me, I might have committed suicide by jumping into the sea. ]

[I lived in your house for half a year, Qin Yue regarded me as a younger brother, but later I asked her to come with me, but she did not agree. ]

I am 16 years old, I am one or two years old, and I have lived in his house, so all the information matches.

At that time, I just felt uncomfortable, and I didn't notice anything unusual. Now that I recalled these words again, I realized that there were so many strange details.

Ning Yixiao remembered Xu Zhi's seemingly mourning phone call after his mother left.

[I can help you somewhat now, has your mother left you any words, if you have any endless wishes, you can tell me, and I will help her fulfill them. ]

"Is there anything left to say..."

At that time, his intuition was not wrong, he was indeed testing.

Su Hui heard Ning Yixiao talking to himself, "Did you think of something?"

"I'm not sure."

Su Hui was also suspicious. He saw the date on the back of the photo, saying July 7th, so he opened Qin Yue's notebook again, and flipped through the pictures corresponding to the dates from the back to the front. Inside, he found a diary related to [Guan Cheng].

"Look at this."

[Today Guan Cheng took me to the town, his friend came to see him and brought a camera.I can’t remember the last time I took a photo. I held Xiao Xiao in my arms, and I didn’t know what to do. It didn’t look very good, but they both said it looked good.

Xiaoguan's friends are very nice, he seems to have just been admitted to a good school, and he invited us to dinner before leaving.I asked the hotel for a receipt, and it was quite expensive, costing nearly a hundred, so I had to find a way to get it back later.I just don't know when the next time we meet will be. ]

"Receipt."

Ning Yixiao rummaged through the receipts for everything related to meals, and one of them had a total consumption of 98.5 yuan, which was very close to what her mother described.

He rolled over on his back with a chill down his spine.

[7.12, Xiao Guan’s friend Xu Zhi treats guests to dinner]