Tao Ling was a little surprised and turned to look at him.
This time, Wen Qingying didn’t meet his gaze, just staring at the tombstone. There wasn’t any anger on his face, but his jawline was obviously tightened, and the whole person seemed to exude coldness, making people not dare to approach.
Tao Ling smiled and felt that this sudden move made him seem more like an actual person. He also didn’t say much, just placing the flowers down on the grave like Wen Qingying did earlier.
“Hello, auntie, I’m Your1The polite version, so I’m capitalizing it son’s… customer. Today, I just happened to meet him, and we came over together to visit You.” Tao Ling said.
Wen Qingying remained motionless, but his gaze suddenly softened.
Because he couldn’t ask, Tao Ling didn’t know what to continue with after saying this, so he could only remain silent. The two of them stood side by side in front of the grave, each with their own thoughts.
It was already the heart of autumn. The sun spilled down from the top of their heads, and the temperature became lukewarm, but it only seemed to make the skies higher and the people smaller. The wind that blew by wasn’t hot or cold, bringing with it a sense of melancholy.
Tao Ling suddenly felt that an autumnal burial was actually the most suitable for Tao Jun.
After a long time, Wen Qingying finally moved a little. He brought out his phone and typed out a question: “Sir, shall we go?”
Tao Ling nodded and bowed towards the woman on the tombstone. When he rose up, he saw Wen Qingying’s tilted head, looking at the bouquet of flowers that he threw away. Tao Ling patted his shoulder, and simply picked up the flowers.
When they left, they passed by a new grave. It was noisy, with five or six people gathered around. Someone lit the candles while someone else burned paper money. A girl of about ten cried and shouted, seeming like she wanted to throw herself on the tomb, but was held back by two adults who coaxed and persuaded her. In the midst of the struggle, the girl suddenly rushed out, and the person behind her accidentally let go. She stumbled down and crashed against the side of the tomb.
While shrieks sounded, Wen Qingying bravely stepped forward. But before he could take action, the girl’s parent had already hugged and embraced her. He silently retracted his feet.
The girl’s forehead immediately turned red, and the swell was visible to the naked eye. Who knew if it was because of the mental anguish or the physical pain, but she wailed until she couldn’t make any more sounds. All who were present felt it was unbearable, and the wailing and sobbing intertwined into one.
The path was blocked, and Tao Ling and Wen Qingying had to watch this scene. The middle-aged man holding the girl was full of tears, pulling the child aside to make way for them, and apologized to the two of them: “Apologies, apologies, please pass.”
Tao Ling no longer looked at the scene and rushed through this site that was filled with sorrow.
After taking a few steps, he suddenly heard a heart-wrenching cry behind him: “Mom!”
Tao Ling stopped sharply, and Wen Qingying just happened to follow up, his chest gently bumping against his back.
After two seconds, Tao Ling increased his stride. The two hurriedly passed through the path in the cemetery, and reached the outside road at their highest speed.
After they left the cemetery and left the flowers beside a trash can, Wen Qingying asked Tao Ling where he wanted to go. Tao Ling looked at the abandoned flowers, and inattentively shook his head.
“I’m going to a flower market. Sir, do you want to go look around?” Wen Qingying typed.
Next Monday would be the date of the religious conference. Fortunately, it would be held at the provincial university this year, so he wouldn’t need to go the extra distance. The manuscript had already been submitted, and the invitation had also timely arrived last night.
He really didn’t have anything to do today, so Tao Ling nodded and said, “Let’s go.”
His voice was so hoarse that it couldn’t be heard.
The flower market was as lively as always.
Walking through the ancient town of Shengnu Township, there were flower farmers gathered on the two sides of a wide street. Close to the streetside were mostly shops, and behind them were flower farms. Among them, there was no shortage of greenhouses that could be directly visited to select flowers. Continuing forward, there were occasionally courtyards, each with a wooden board laid out flat for display, one next to another, with large bouquets of freshly cut flowers as far as the eye could see.
Wen Qingying took Tao Ling through several areas with ease before finally arriving at a huge exhibition market and entering a store that specialized in selling planters, potting soil, and the like.
The boss was obviously familiar with Wen Qingying. Wen Qingying handed over an already-written list, and the exchange ended when he paid for part of the deposit. The boss would directly deliver the flowers to the city tomorrow morning.
The entire process was so fast that Tao Ling almost couldn’t react. When they left the market, he couldn’t help sighing, “It’s over just like that?”
Wen Qingying walked beside him and handed over his phone: “Sir, there’s a grassland at the edge of the town. The weather is good today, so maybe there are people flying kites. Should we go?”
Turning around and seeing his unbridled enthusiasm, Tao Ling agreed.
Passing through the entire flower market, there was a park at the very end, with a vast grassland in the middle.
The skies were high, and the clouds were light.2Idiom meaning good weather There were a lot of tourists, and the grassy area was covered in moisture-proof mats. People gathered together to play card games, laughing and chatting. In the distance, several kites swayed in the sky, and it could be seen that they would tremble with the wind.
As they walked towards the grass, a little girl suddenly ran over from the street with a bamboo flower basket hanging from her elbow. She gently pulled on Wen Qingying’s sleeve.
Wen Qingying lowered his head, and the girl pointed at her own flower basket.
Tao Ling said, “Meimei, we’re not buying flowers.”
The girl looked at him, cocked her head, paused for two seconds, then pointed to her throat and waved her hands.
Tao Ling was momentarily puzzled. Wen Qingying turned to look at him, then gestured a few times towards the girl.
The girl suddenly laughed, and the two, one an adult and the other a child, communicated beside him using their hands. Soon, the little girl pointed at Tao Ling, lovably tilted her head as she looked at them, and stopped gesturing.
Wen Qingying smiled, and took a bundle of Chinese bellflowers from her basket. Right after he paid, the girl took out another bundle of Chinese bellflowers and stuffed it in the arms of Wen Qingying, before she turned and ran.
Tao Ling saw this and accused in a soft voice, “What’s up with all you… children? Liking buy one get one free this much?” As he said this, he motioned to Wen Qingying to leave, but Wen Qingying turned and gave the flowers to him.
“For me?” Tao Ling leaned back slightly and pointed at himself in surprise.
Wen Qingying nodded, grabbed his wrist, and stuffed the flowers in his hand before bringing out his phone to type: “I have a lot of flowers in my shop. Even if I took it, it wouldn’t be of much use.”
Tao Ling couldn’t help laughing, saying, “You could resell it.”
Wen Qingying typed another sentence: “Earlier, the meimei said to buy it for Sir, and that’s why I bought it.”
His expression was sincere, but Tao Ling was sure that he would’ve bought it no matter what, so he didn’t take what he said to heart.
Stepping on the grass, Tao Ling also finally took out his phone, asking, “You gave me so many flowers already, can I treat you to a meal later?”
Wen Qingying was very happy and agreed. “Thank you, sir. I want to eat the beef noodles next to the flower store.”
Tao Ling smiled in defeat and put away his phone, saying, “Can’t you have some standards?”
After wandering around for a few times, thinking that time was almost up, the two of them returned to the city together. When Tao Ling asked Wen Qingying what he wanted to eat, Wen Qingying went straight into the noodle shop.
Tao Ling followed him, dumbfounded, and finally ordered two bowls of beef noodles.
While waiting for the noodles, Tao Ling saw that the colleague from another department had sent another message: “Do you still remember the post I told you about? There are so many floors now that it’s about to collapse, and the impact isn’t good. Want me to find someone to delete it for you?”
Tao Ling was helpless. “Why are they this idle?”
After replying to the message, he clicked on the webpage and entered the school forum. He saw that the post discussing himself had more than a thousand replies. When he poked in, he found that the topic on the floors had gone thousands of miles away. So much so that they started setting him on a blind date.
The student with good intentions put aside his educational experience and took advantage of the situation to sort out the female teachers in the college who might be familiar with him, and matched them with him one by one, and also rated the degree of compatibility.
Tao Ling quickly scrolled through a few pages, and suddenly he saw a floor that said, “Didn’t you guys notice? He wears a ring on the middle finger of his left hand. There’s no need to blindly set up a pair of mandarin ducks3Mandarin ducks are believed to be extremely loyal to their partners, and is seen as the symbol of love and devotion .”
The next floor said: “Yes, someone finally discovered the truth. In fact, Teacher Tao has been engaged for a long time.”
As if one stone stirred up a thousand waves, the topic of Tao Ling’s fiancée was piled up for dozens of more floors. The ID from just now said: “Yes, Tao Ling’s fiancée is me.”
The following replies were full of contempt.
Tao Ling’s head was covered with black lines. He took a sip of water, then looked up and saw that Wen Qingying was also looking at his phone. He then exited and browsed through the forum. Suddenly, his attention was attracted by a post. The title of the post was: “F*ck, I want to sleep with the owner gege of the flower shop opposite the west gate!”
The moment he saw the title clearly, Tao Ling choked on the water.
