After a moment, Yun Nan asked, “Jie, what did you want to say to ge?”
Yun Xin paused for a few seconds then said uncomfortably, “Ask when he’s coming home.”
Yun Nan looked surprised, but nodded happily and immediately conveyed Yun Xin’s meaning to Wen Qingying.
Tao Ling thought that this girl was just too easy to trick. Yun Xin had on an expression that looked like she could devour Wen Qingying if given the chance, but she still believed what she just said.
But he was just an outsider, so he couldn’t say anything.
After Yun Nan gestured at him, Wen Qingying’s expression relaxed a bit. He finally released Tao Ling, then gestured some more. Tao Ling guessed that meant they were going to leave.
Sure enough, Wen Qingying stepped forward and hugged Yun Nan.
After letting go of her, he immediately led Tao Ling in the direction of the main road. From behind them, Yun Xin yelled, “Wen Qingying!”
Wen Qingying remained expressionless and didn’t let up his stride. Bai Guan lowered his voice and said, “Young lady, let’s go back. Nannan just said she’s hungry.”
Yun Nan’s soft voice drifted over, “It’s… it’s okay. Ge left already, so jie, let’s also leave the cemetery with him.”
“Hold on, I haven’t kneeled yet.” Yun Xin said.
The voices behind grew fainter and fainter, until they finally arrived at a main path. Tao Ling struggled for a bit, and only then did Wen Qingying realize he was still holding onto him, so he immediately let go.
Tao Ling had naturally pale skin, and it didn’t hurt, but there was a circle of red marks. He couldn’t help but rub it. Wen Qingying looked guilty and touched the red mark lightly with his fingers.
The touch was too obvious, and even more difficult to ignore than when it was tightly pinched. Tao Ling’s heart trembled, and his hand withdrew as well.
“I’m sorry, sir. I was a little worked up just now.” Wen Qingying hurriedly took out his phone to apologize.
Tao Ling smiled, then patted his back soothingly.
Wen Qingying lowered his eyes and wrote on the phone, “Sir, let’s hurry and leave. I’ll take you through a shortcut.”
Tao Ling agreed. At this time, they were just halfway to the main road when Wen Qingying suddenly took him to the left and walked along a path between tombs. The end of the path led to a wall. There was a gap at a corner of the wall, making it a bit shorter than the surrounding walls next to it.
When they reached the gap, Wen Qingying stopped and turned to look at Tao Ling.
Tao Ling was surprised, and wanted to ask how he found this place. Then he was also worried that Wen Qingying wanted to hurry up and leave, so he just pointed at the wall and signaled for Wen Qingying to climb over it first.
Wen Qingying took a few steps back to run, then stepped on the wall, and climbed up to the top in a few steps. When he was about to jump down, he stopped for a bit to turn back and grin at Tao Ling.
That smile was extremely brisk, bringing with it a sense of escape. His eyes were sparkling, and his tiger teeth were exposed without any cover. His usually calm aura was like a cloudy mist that was blown away by the wind, suddenly making him look extremely youthful.
Tao Ling was dazzled by this smile, and before he could react, Wen Qingying had already disappeared from his sight.
He took a deep breath, stepped back a few steps, and used the same method to run up the wall.
After supporting his upper body over the top of the wall, Tao Ling held his breath when he saw the scenery outside.
There was a different world outside of the cemetery.
It seemed that there used to be some kind of school there, but it was now abandoned, leaving behind a very wide playground with rusty soccer goals at both ends, and just waist-high weeds.
It was already the season for cold winds to blow about. The weeds on the field had turned yellow, with only a little green occasionally mixed in. When the wind blew, the waves of grass swayed back and forth, instantly reminding Tao Ling of a wasteland.
If it was the intersection of spring and summer, white flowers would bloom among the grass. It must have been a beautiful place to be.
Until his hands became sore from supporting himself on the wall, Tao Ling didn’t look down. And when he did, he laughed.
It had rained for the past few days, so a small ditch had formed behind the wall. It was previously blocked by grass and couldn’t be seen. When Wen Qingying went down, he didn’t notice that something was off until he stepped on the grass.
He stood under the wall and looked up at Tao Ling, his body splashed by water. Seeing Tao Ling laughing, he lowered his gaze to eye his pants. When he looked up again, his eyes were a little resentful.
However, after a few seconds, Tao Ling could no longer laugh. Wen Qingying had stepped back, hinting at something. Tao Ling then realized that the ditch where the water accumulated was very wide, and he wouldn’t be able to escape the same fate if he wanted to go down.
Thinking that Wen Qingying was also like this anyway, so he might as well get wet, he gritted his teeth and was about to jump down. But Wen Qingying suddenly opened his arms to him.
Tao Ling was startled and retracted the foot that he had just stretched out.
Wen Qingying still smiled at him and opened his arms a little wider.
The meaning was obvious, but Tao Ling didn’t dare to move. After all, he was still an adult man, and not the thin type. The impact would be great.
After a moment of stalemate, Wen Qingying blinked and raised his chin toward him.
A gust of wind blew by. Tao Ling smiled, dove down, and jumped into Wen Qingying’s arms.
Catching him steadily, Wen Qingying took Tao Ling a few steps back to cushion the force of his fall and took him away from the flooded area.
Their bodies stopped together, and Tao Ling wanted to let go. As soon as he moved, the arm that Wen Qingying placed around his waist tightened for a moment, then let go immediately in the next second. It was so fast that Tao Ling couldn’t react.
When they looked at each other, the expression on Wen Qingying’s face was still pure and sincere. Tao Ling couldn’t help but suspect that it was an illusion.
The two walked to the center of the field together and stood among the weeds. The wilderness felt silent, with only the sky, earth, and wind.
Although the wilderness was only the size of two soccer fields.
Passing through here was equivalent to bypassing the entire cemetery. After walking for a while, Tao Ling took out his phone and sent a message to Wen Qingying. “How did you know about this place?”
Wen Qingying: “Sometimes I just walk around the cemetery when I have nothing to do.”
Tao Ling was surprised. He also often came to the cemetery, but he never cared about what was next to the cemetery. Compared to Wen Qingying, his life really was like a wall.
Wen Qingying looked a little nervous, with eyebrows raised. It was an expression that was rarely seen on his face.
“Sir, aren’t I impressive?” He continued typing.
Tao Ling laughed, replying, “Yup, super impressive!”
After crossing the entire field, they were about to step onto the opening that led to the road. Tao Ling looked back. Behind him was an empty space, grass forming a sea.
Actually, autumn isn’t that bad, he suddenly thought.
In autumn, he met Wen Qingying, and they walked into winter together.
In the blink of an eye, it was already the end of December. After confirming the schedule in Beijing, Tao Ling and Wen Qingying bought flight tickets for December 28th.
On that day, they would set off early in the morning and go to the university where the lecture would be held in the afternoon. It was scheduled in the evening, so they had plenty of time. The next day was an academic conference at another school, which lasted a day. Then it was the weekend, and New Year’s Day happened to be on Monday, so there were three days of free time.
Except for taking a flight back to Wu City on the afternoon of New Year’s Day, Tao Ling and Wen Qingying could freely spend the remaining two and a half days.
Tao Ling also refused the accommodation arranged by the other university, so Wen Qingying took the initiative to take charge of booking a hotel room.
After the reservation was finally made, Tao Ling realized that the hotel business was relatively good during this period. Wen Qingying didn’t manage to get single rooms, but only a standard room.
Then let’s just live together, Tao Ling thought, we’re friends anyway, it’d be weird to insist on a single.
Finally, the departure day arrived. The flight took more than three hours, and the weather was fine. Tao Ling looked at the blue and white outside the window, and soon felt drowsy.
Wen Qingying leaned towards him, and Tao Ling subconsciously slept on his shoulder until the plane landed.
It was noon when they arrived in Beijing. The private university that would host the lecture was very enthusiastic and sent a car to pick them up.
Then they arrived in Haidian District, and the two settled down in the hotel they had booked and had dinner. It was still early for the evening lecture.
Even if they had to go there in advance to meet the teacher who would pick them up, they could still rest for two hours.
After asking Wen Qingying, they both had similar ideas and wanted to rest for a while.
Tao Ling had slept on the plane, but Wen Qingying was a little sleepy, so one of them sat while the other lay, and they quietly spent the whole afternoon.
At 5:30, thinking that time was almost up, Tao Ling prepared to leave.
Wen Qingying had agreed to go with him, but when he was leaving, he slept soundly, looking very tired and hard to wake up.
Before deciding whether he should call out to him, the teacher who was supposed to pick him up called, so Tao Ling had to pack his bag and leave in a hurry.
After answering the phone and walking downstairs, he sent a message to Wen Qingying. “I didn’t wake you up when I left because you were sleeping soundly. If you’re hungry, eat something by yourself first. I’ll be back after the lecture. Wait for me.”
Tao Ling went downstairs and saw the teacher waiting at the entrance of the hotel. The teacher smiled as soon as she saw him. “Teacher Tao, you really are charming.”
“Are you Teacher Liu?” Tao Ling smiled and shook her hand.
The two of them had dinner together and entered the school. Because it was a series of lectures and there were many people listening, they were arranged in a classroom, which was indeed similar to the platform class at the provincial university.
Before the lecture began, Tao Ling stood at the side of the podium and heard the host, Teacher Liu, say a bunch of titles. It took him a while to realize that he was the one being mentioned.
Applause sounded from beneath the stage, and Tao Ling silenced his phone and went on stage.
The content was what he was used to talking about, and it wasn’t appropriate to speak of anything too difficult, so he spoke very easily and smoothly. The audience seemed to have a good response.
Including the Q&A session, the whole lecture lasted two hours.
It was already past nine in the evening when he left the lecture hall. His hotel wasn’t too far from here. In the end, he only exchanged a few polite words with Teacher Liu, and Tao Ling was able to get away and walk back to the hotel by himself.
He first glanced at the chat with Wen Qingying and found that Wen Qingying hadn’t replied to him. He thought that he might still be sleeping, and thought of his quiet sleeping face in the afternoon. His heart beat faster.
As he walked, he sent a message to Kou Huai. “The lecture is over, it went okay.”
Kou Huai: “Teacher Liu called me and said you spoke extremely well.”
Tao Ling was blunt: “What extremely well? I just didn’t dare to embarrass you. Are you really not coming today?”
Kou Huai sent a laughing emoji: “I can’t come. I have a New Year’s party.”
Tao Ling agreed, put his phone in his pocket, and arrived at the hotel. When he thought of Wen Qingying waiting for him in the room, his heart couldn’t help but tighten.
After going upstairs, he took a deep breath at the door before swiping his card.
The short squeak of opening the door sounded softly. Tao Ling entered the room, inserted the room card, and turned on the light. Glancing inside, he found that Wen Qingying wasn’t there.
He was a little surprised. He didn’t even put down his bag before immediately sending a message to Wen Qingying, but the other party didn’t reply.
After waiting for a long time, he suddenly felt something was wrong and called directly.
“Hello, the number you dialed is turned off…”
Tao Ling was stunned, threw down his bag on one of the beds, and wanted to run out with his phone in hand.
When he reached the entrance and was about to open the door, he glanced at the bathroom and was stunned.
He turned around, fumbled on the wall next to him, and turned on the bathroom light. When the light shone, the shadow of a curled-up person appeared in the corner of the bathroom.
When he opened the bathroom door, Tao Ling was stunned in place.
Wen Qingying was huddled in the innermost part of the bathroom, leaning against the wall, hugging his legs tightly, and burying his face in his knees.
After a moment, Tao Ling walked forward and touched him carefully.
Wen Qingying shuddered and looked up suddenly. Under the pale light, his eyes were red, and he looked extremely frightened.
Tao Ling felt shocked, hurt, and afraid. He couldn’t help but reach out to touch him.
Just as his fingers were about to touch his face, Wen Qingying suddenly kneeled down. His entire body trembled violently, and he hugged Tao Ling.
