Chapter 262: Even Dreams Are Restless ①
“I’ll go check on the patients first. You hurry up and do your homework, and we’ll go home after you’re done!” Ye Lian tidied up the medicine cabinet, took the electronic blood pressure monitor and the box containing the thermometer, and walked out.
Seeing Ye Lian leave the office, Ye Haifei lowered his head, picked up his pen, but hesitated and couldn’t write a single word. He looked up, quietly gazing at a small bottle labeled “sleeping pills” next to the computer on the desk. He knew this was a medicine his sister often took. Compelled by an unknown force, he reached out and picked up the small white bottle, pouring some into his palm. The small pills were a little bigger than mung beans. He took a deep breath and put the pills from his palm into his pocket. After a while, he felt he was acting inexplicably and reached into his pocket again, grabbing the pills in his palm and putting them back into the small bottle. A few minutes later, he poured the pills from the bottle out again, then put them back. After repeating this several times, footsteps echoed in the corridor. In a panic, he fumbled and simply put the entire bottle into his purse.
Ye Lian put down the iron box holding the thermometer and the electronic blood pressure monitor, and took off her white coat. “Xiao Fei, have you finished your homework? Let’s go home to eat! Your brother-in-law should have cooked and is waiting. There’s fish you like.”
“Ah… oh.” Hearing Ye Lian’s words, Ye Haifei swept the books, workbooks, and pen from the desk into his schoolbag, zipped it up, and stood up. “I’m done, Sis… Let’s go back!”
“Okay.” Ye Lian nodded, picked up her bag hanging on the rack, and went home with Ye Haifei.
Ye Haifei had not attended Class 10’s morning class for three days. Nie Qiu was indifferent to this, but Li Kai was happy. No one could watch a fly buzz around their girlfriend without doing something. However, the classmates in Class 10 were a bit unaccustomed to it. Li Kai and Ye Haifei’s daily sparring was a rare diversion in their intense study life. Without this diversion, they felt somewhat uncomfortable.
But being unaccustomed was just that; no one really wanted to find Ye Haifei to attend their morning class. This was because in Class 10, no one genuinely wanted to befriend Ye Haifei, even though he had been studying in this class for nearly three months.
In the third year of junior high school, there were classes every day, and evening self-study sessions at night. Only Saturday and Sunday evenings had no evening self-study. It was Saturday evening, and there was no evening self-study. Nie Qiu did not cook and deliver food to the market for Nie Aifang. Instead, she waited for Nie Aifang to return with groceries and for Nie Aiwen to finish work. The three of them cooked and ate together. Cooking and eating together was an ordinary thing in ordinary families, but Nie Qiu was very happy and cherished it. After the three of them finished eating, Nie Aiwen took the bowls to the kitchen to wash them, while Nie Aifang and Nie Qiu sat on the sofa, watching television and picking tea beans.
When the male protagonist’s mobile phone rang on television, he received a text message. Nie Qiu felt her mobile phone vibrating in her pocket. She put down the handful of tea beans she was holding and was stunned when she saw the message from Ye Haifei. She then looked at Nie Aifang and said, “Mom, I need to go out for a bit.”
“Where are you going? It’s almost dark.” It gets dark earlier in winter and later in summer. It was seven o’clock after dinner, and the sky was darkening.
Nie Qiu lacked a bit of confidence. She was silent for a moment and said, “A friend of mine is going abroad, and everyone is going to see her off. They want me to go too.”
“Going out this late?” Nie Aifang frowned. The news reported that there were many bad people nowadays! Nie Aifang couldn’t feel at ease with Nie Qiu going out alone so late.
Nie Aiwen came out after washing the dishes and heard Nie Qiu and Nie Aifang’s conversation. He smiled and said, “Let Nie Qiu go! Nie Qiu is in the third year of junior high now. Everyone will be separating soon, so it’s natural for everyone to get together. Young people nowadays like to go out for meals and singing. Don’t restrict her. Nie Qiu has grown up; she understands.”
Nie Aifang listened, still hesitant, but seeing Nie Qiu looking at her and Nie Aiwen looking at her, she reluctantly nodded. “Alright then! But if anything happens, remember to call home. If you come back late, call your… Dad… Dad to pick you up.”
The word “Dad” was a word Nie Qiu had gotten used to calling, and Nie Aiwen had gotten used to hearing, but Nie Aifang herself had not yet gotten used to it.
Nie Qiu nodded, put her mobile phone into the pocket of her jeans, changed her shoes at the entrance, opened the door, and walked out.
Ye Haifei sat in a newly opened beverage bar at Zijin Hotel, staring at the liquid in a glass in a private room. When he sent the message, he knew he had no way back.
He had had his sister’s medicine for a week and had been struggling with his thoughts for a week. He knew that he and Nie Qiu had no future, and never would! He remembered a saying online, something like, if you fall in love with someone in the third year of junior high, then you must truly love that person.
He felt that he truly liked Nie Qiu, that he truly loved Nie Qiu! Because he felt a heartbeat when he saw her, this was true love. But if such love could not be obtained, what should he do?
Just thinking that all his classmates in the third year might see him as a joke, how could he be reconciled? Since it was impossible in this life, he would make her remember him for a lifetime!
He threw his mobile phone into the quilt containing the beverage and fell into a strange state, like a death row inmate in his final moments, lying on the coffee table in the small private room, unable to move, savoring his last moment of peace. This should be what he wanted. Nie Qiu was easily fooled and easily softened. For example, Bai Ya, he had seen Bai Ya playing well with some female classmates from his class before. However, those female classmates had bullied Nie Qiu before and had also cornered Nie Qiu. Yet, Nie Qiu still played well with Bai Ya. Nie Qiu was easily softened; a few words and she would come.
Ye Haifei was not lying; he was indeed going abroad, and this was indeed their last meeting.
Love is a gamble, and it is also a virus that makes people addicted yet causes heartache.
The small private room was dark, with dim lighting. After adjusting to the darkness, everything could be seen clearly, including the mobile phone in the beverage cup. Ye Haifei looked at the mobile phone in the cup through the brilliantly colored liquid, distorted and beautiful, like a silent film through the glass. Ye Haifei didn’t know what he was thinking. He seemed to regret it, but he was unwilling to reach out and fix anything, wanting to let things develop as they were.
Nowadays, a type of cocktail called RIO was popular among young people. It was brightly colored but not intoxicating. He looked at the other two cups besides the one holding the mobile phone, one pink and one light green, giving a very beautiful feeling. He should now put something into one of the cups. That thing was in his pocket, but he found it difficult to reach out and take it.
