Rose Dust

Chapter 4 – Had a Bit of Feelings

The last time he came to the shop, he wasn’t wearing glasses because she had seen his long, narrow, and dark eyes, which always felt a little more distant through the lenses. 

Fortunately, he didn’t have the bearing of rejecting people thousands of miles away like Li Kong. He occasionally had a gentle expression on his face. She felt generous, so she talked a lot.

“It’s a coincidence; the one just now was my high school classmate. I haven’t seen him for more than two years. I didn’t expect him to come to S City too.” 

Ye Jiegeng kept apologizing like the parent of a child who did something wrong, “Hey, that guy is used to being unruly. It’s really a bother to you.”

“It’s okay. It’s not your fault.” Anyang Chunyuan heard her overtones, and casually looked for a different topic, “I just heard that person said Wenyang High School. Is it Wenyang High School in City F?”

“Well, yeah, how do you know that?”

“Because I’m from No 1 Middle School opposite Wenyang High School.” He also found it to be such a coincidence, but his eyes didn’t have any ups and downs; only the raised corner of his mouth showed his good mood. “Every year, Wenyang High School and No. 1 Middle School will have a friendly basketball match.”

“You play basketball?”

“Well, occasionally as a substitute.”

Ye Jiegeng was surprised. In her impression, the boys on the basketball court were all flushed and sweaty. They lifted their clothes and wiped their faces at every turn, causing the girls to scream at their exposed ribs. 

No matter how bad the weather was, they always looked fresh and clean. It made people feel that they were born to walk gracefully on the red carpet paved with rose petals.

“Why is that? I was originally in the No. 1 Middle School in the city, but I transferred to Wenyang after a five-point difference in my score. And I have never seen a basketball match. Why is that?”

She felt discouraged. What a wonderful turn of life, she didn’t know how many sights she had missed, but it was something no one knew. 

Chunyuan saw that her face was filled with childlike innocence, and unconsciously glanced at her again, thinking that this face was similar to that one in some ways.

“You are a bit like a person, someone I knew.” His tone was light, but brisk and gentle at the same time.

“Who is it?” she asked excitedly.

“A friend who I grew up with.” Chunyuan added with a smile, “It’s a man.”

She was speechless. A girl was described as a boy; this was not a pleasant thing at all. It was too late for her to resent him because she had reached the door of the store, and she invited him to come in and rest. 

He didn’t plan to stay longer. He saw the girl scratch her head and tug at the ends of her clothes: her pink and tender face stained with a layer of chagrin, at a total loss. 

He hadn’t seen someone like her for a long time, and she was innocent and unpretentious; he felt a bit of his feelings rouse out of thin air.

Thinking about this, he softened his gaze and said, “Next time, there will always be opportunities in the future.”

This sentence made her happy for a long time, but it also lessened the sadness of Tan Fei’s departure. It was not easy for someone as fresh as Tan Fei to find a job, and it was always difficult at the beginning. She understood in her heart that Tan Fei’s words about coming to see her often were just like a consolation prize.

Everyone has their own life, and everyone’s heart has a very deep hole, looking around the world for emotions and desires to fill it with. Although that hole grew wider with age, it would only get colder, but there would be no day to calm down.

It was a long life before them that they couldn’t resist.

After Tan Fei left, the shop was noticeably busier. Despite her father’s anxiousness to find a new clerk, he was always dissatisfied with choosing one. 

Ye Jiegeng was as busy as a gyroscope every day and didn’t have time to think about nonsense. 

In the morning, she rushed to the medical school to send white roses. After that, she went to class and couldn’t hold on any longer, so she covered her face with the textbook and fell asleep.

It was a very deep sleep, and when she opened her eyes, except for a few students who were studying in the classroom, almost all of them were gone. 

Having packed up the textbooks and prepared to go home, she stopped at the restroom to wash her face. After washing, the whole person became more energetic. 

The mirror reflected the light flowing out of the corridor, and her face had a tired look, with two thick dark circles coloring the tender skin that always had the scent of remnant flowers and fallen willows.

She laughed, remembering how her father had been urging her to rest for days by saying, “If you go on like this, how will you seduce beautiful boys?”

She thought it would be all right. She was used to it and was happy to live with her father for the rest of her life.