As he walked on without sparing me another glance, my pent-up anger erupted. I rushed forward, blocking his path, and shouted:
“Chen Qiao Luo, how long are you planning to wallow like this? Do you think acting like this makes you some kind of hero? Let me tell you—you’re nothing but a coward! I know what’s happening in your family hurts you deeply, but what about me? Do you think I haven’t suffered too? I’ve told myself so many times not to care about you anymore, not to think of you as a friend. But I can’t, Chen Qiao Luo—I just can’t!”
By the time I finished, even I couldn’t hold back my sadness any longer.
Just a month ago, Chen Qiao Luo and I had been so close. How did everything change so drastically in such a short time? I’d heard before about the terrifying power of time—that it could effortlessly overturn everything we once believed in.
Faced with my accusations, Chen Qiao Luo’s expression grew darker and darker. He kept his head down, avoiding my gaze, silently standing before me. The sunlight fell on him, and for some reason, I caught a glimpse of loneliness in his figure.
It felt as if needles were pricking my heart, each jab bringing pain.
I don’t know how long we stood like that. Seeing that he wasn’t going to say anything, a desolate feeling spread through me like an empty desert. Glancing at him one last time, I turned and walked away without another word.
I thought to myself that Chen Qiao Luo and I were like two straight lines with different trajectories. Though we had intersected briefly, we were destined to drift further and further apart over the course of our lives. Neither of us would look back.
Meeting him again was just a fleeting moment in the passage of time. The next day, I returned to school, still the proud and untouchable Zhu Yun Hao.
Yet, I couldn’t shake the disappointment Chen Qiao Luo had left me with. For the next two days, I couldn’t summon any energy. Li Zi asked me multiple times if something was wrong, but I could only shake my head.
The matter of Chen Qiao Luo was an unhealed wound buried deep in my heart. I couldn’t expose it to anyone.
* * *
The phone call from Brother Xiao Hei came a week after I ran into Chen Qiao Luo. It was late at night, and his voice was tinged with urgency.
“Yun Hao, can you get in touch with A Luo? Sister He Pei just fainted and was rushed to the city hospital, but no one can reach him. If you can find him, tell him to come to the hospital immediately.”
Auntie He Pei was hospitalized! The news came so suddenly that I barely had time to process it. I quickly changed clothes and dashed out of the house.
Where could Chen Qiao Luo be? A City was so vast—where would I even start looking? I stood at the entrance of my neighborhood, overwhelmed and lost.
As I stood there, a snippet of overheard conversation from a few days earlier suddenly surfaced in my mind. It had been idle chatter among some girls—something I hadn’t paid much attention to at the time. But now, I remembered that one of them had mentioned seeing Chen Qiao Luo near the entrance of an underground billiard hall.
I immediately called my class monitor to ask for the girl’s phone number. Explaining who I was and my reason for calling, I hurriedly asked her for the location of the billiard hall. Though confused, she gave me the address.
I hailed a cab and rushed there. Before I even entered, the loud, raucous noise from inside reached my ears. Running down the stairs, I found the place teeming with delinquent teenagers. My sudden appearance seemed to take them by surprise, and for a moment, every pair of eyes turned to me.
Ignoring the discomfort, I started searching table by table for Chen Qiao Luo. A few boys made flirtatious comments or tried to approach me, but I brushed them off.
Finally, I spotted him near the west wall. Holding a cue, he was leaning over, preparing to take a shot. He was surrounded by a few boys who looked like troublemakers.
My heart tightened as if someone had struck it hard. Gritting my teeth, I strode over and yanked Chen Qiao Luo upright.
He looked stunned, clearly not expecting to see me there. After a moment, he asked, “Zhu Yun Hao, what are you doing here?”
0 Comments