Grandpa Ai gets up at six o’clock every day, so as long as he is free, Ai Jing Chu will get up early to accompany grandpa for a walk. On the morning of the second day when Zeng Li and Wu Ying stayed up until midnight, Ai Jing Chu also got up a bit late. When he went out, Aunt Li, the nanny, had already pushed Grandpa Ai for a walk by the lake.

As he was about to go home, his phone rang.

Ai Jing Chu slowed down, took a breath, and picked up the phone.

“Teacher Ai, I’m sorry to bother you.” A gentle and low male voice came out of the receiver, “I’m Mu Cheng He from the Department of Physics.” The other party was probably afraid that he would forget, so he specially reported his identity first.

“Hello.” Ai Jing Chu said.

“There is a child in our family who wants to see you.” Mu Cheng He explained, “I went to Dean Feng yesterday, and he said that you are the expert in this field and asked me to consult you. They are flying out for a meeting, that’s why I’m bothering you so early.”

Listening to the other party’s words, Ai Jingchu stopped, stood on the shore facing the lake, and asked bluntly, “What’s wrong with the child?”

“My sister’s child is still in the mother’s womb, but now it is six months old, and the lip line is incomplete according to the B-ultrasound.”

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Ai Jing Chu continued to ask: “What is the interruption distance? Is there an interruption in the upper alveolar bone? Is it unilateral or bilateral?”

These consecutive questions obviously stumped the physics teacher. Mu Cheng He on the other end of the phone paused for a moment. Her didn’t expect there to be so many multiple-choice questions.

Ai Jing Chu looked at his watch and said, “How about this, Teacher Mu. Today my flight is at noon. I’m afraid I won’t have time to meet with you, but I’ll be back on Wednesday night. If you trust me, just wait until Thursday morning. Take a look.”

Mu Cheng He heaved a sigh of relief, smiled and replied, “Okay, thank you.” Then he hung up the phone.

Ai Jing Chu looked at the phone screen, thought for a while, entered a few words, and saved the number just now into the phone book. The school expands its enrolment every year, and the campuses are getting more and more repairs. Most of the colleagues can hardly be called by name or have never met at all. He and Mu Cheng He were not strangers either, they had traveled together in the car, talked to each other, and he was often mentioned by people, and those old subordinates who came to see the old man occasionally would also talk about him, but they never talked about his personal affairs.

Early on Thursday morning, Ai Jing Chu met Mu Cheng He as scheduled. Behind Mu Cheng He was a petite girl, who was supporting a pregnant woman with a big belly, who was holding a B-ultrasound examination form in her hand. Ai Jing Chu took it over and read it carefully. One of the lines read: “The upper lip on the right is interrupted, about 7mm wide.”

Ai Jing Chu raised his eyes and asked, “What do your family members think?”

When the pregnant woman heard Ai Jing Chu’s rhetorical question, she didn’t say a word, but shed tears first.

The petite girl beside the pregnant woman said, “Teacher Ai, do you think there is a mistake?”

Ai Jing Chu looked at her, thinking about how to say it more tactfully, he was not impatient, so he paused. Maybe this pause misunderstood the other party, and the girl hurriedly explained: “I am Mu Cheng He’s wife, and this is my sister. I either suspect that there is a problem with the level of the hospital, or I wonder if there is something wrong. What about the child? Maybe a cleft lip? No one in my family has ever had that.”

Mu Cheng He moved closer, patted her on the shoulder, and comforted her: “Xue Tong, don’t worry, just listen to Teacher Ai slowly.”

Ai Jing Chu said: “Now is the peak period. There are many people in the affiliated hospital who see B-ultrasound in the morning. Let’s go to the Imaging Department to borrow their teaching equipment. Let’s check it again and I will confirm it on the spot.”

The pregnant woman thanked him repeatedly.

When they arrived outside the B-ultrasound room, Xue Tong went in with her cousin, while Mu Cheng He stayed outside.

This time, the examination was done more carefully. Ai Jing Chu folded his arms and stared at the black and white images on the screen with a serious expression. He didn’t say a word for nearly ten minutes from the beginning to the end, until the patient and his family members came out of the consulting room first.

The doctor next to him asked Ai Jing Chu: “Are you an acquaintance?”

“En.”

“What do you think?”

Ai Jing Chu said lightly: “Not only is there a problem with the right lip, but the upper alveolar bone is also missing, and the child’s tongue can be seen.” The fluorescence on the screen reflected the outline of his face, and no expression could be seen.

“It’s too serious. It’s best to kill the child.” The man said.

Ai Jing Chu didn’t answer, instead he stood up and said, “Old Wang, let me borrow the office next door to you.”

“Okay, whatever you want, use it for as long as you like.”

Ai Jing Chu went out, looked around at the three people, and said, “I want to talk to the child’s mother alone.” After getting permission, Ai Jing Chu took the pregnant woman to the next room.

Ai Jing Chu asked: “Are you Mu Cheng He’s sister?”

“No, I’m his wife’s cousin.”

Ai Jing Chu nodded, “Then since they are cousins ​​and not immediate family members, I won’t let them participate in our conversation, okay?” This was the only interrogative sentence he used throughout the morning to ask for the other party’s opinion.

“Okay.” My cousin said nervously.

“The test results you showed me earlier are not wrong. It’s just that I checked with Dr. Wang. Maybe because of the angle of the fetus last time, he didn’t see the palate clearly. The fetus not only has a cleft lip, but also a cleft palate.”

When the cousin heard this, although she was prepared in her heart, the tears that had just dried were wet again, “Doctor, you may not know how difficult it is for me to conceive this child. I had a child less than a year after I was married. At that time, my husband and I felt that we hadn’t had time to enjoy the world of two people. How could we have a child to drag ourselves down? So we aborted it without hesitation. At that time, I didn’t tell my family. I sat on the bus when I knew I was pregnant. In the car, I kept complaining about how God made me so unlucky.”

The cousin wiped her tears and said: “It turned out that I was over 30 later, and my classmates and friends had children, so I thought about it. But I never thought that no matter what, I wouldn’t be able to conceive. What do we do? I have seen the hospital and tried everything, but there is still no news for more than a year. Then I thought, is it God’s retribution? Is the child I gave up coming back to punish me? Now it’s hard, it’s been half a year, but…you said…”

Finally, the cousin broke down in tears.

Ai Jing Chu looked at her quietly.

The cousin finally felt that she had lost her composure in front of the doctor, so she endured it, stopped her sobs, and asked, “Doctor Ai, do you think the child is really serious? What should we do? If the child is born, it will be cured? I can’t bear to not have this child, let’s treat him!”

Ai Jing Chu said: “In the end, you need to discuss with your family and decide what to choose. The obstetrician may have told you before about the risks and consequences of induced labor. Now I want to tell you that if you want this Children, you have to be mentally prepared.”

The cousin nodded, waiting for his next words.

“If the fetus has cleft lip and palate, he will go to the orthodontist department for preoperative orthodontics within two months of birth. We will take molds for alveolar shaping and wear aligners. Lip repair surgery, palate plastic surgery after half a year, and then speech correction until preschool age, because the child’s body is constantly growing and growing, so it is not excluded that there will be secondary deformities after successful surgery. Once If there are structural obstacles in pronunciation or other aspects, you need to go to oral and maxillofacial surgery for a second repair. Around the age of twelve, another appearance plastic surgery will be performed. The last surgery for nasolabial and palate repair will be around the age of eighteen. During this period, no matter whether the child has deciduous teeth or permanent teeth, the orthodontist needs to observe, monitor and treat the growth and development of the teeth and alveolar.”

He tried his best to make the language as simple and understandable as possible, but the cousin forgot to cry or ask questions after hearing about the operations again and again, and just stared wide-eyed.

Ai Jing Chu said calmly: “This is currently the most authoritative cleft lip and palate repair procedure in the world. The whole process requires the full participation of cosmetic doctors, maxillofacial surgeons, orthodontists, and even psychologists. Not to mention the pressure on children, For the parents, this is also a huge responsibility. There have been several operations before and after, and the treatment lasted for nearly 20 years. Once the child is born, the parents have an inescapable responsibility for this life, and they should do their best to love him, take care of him, instead of saying that if the child has something that makes the parents feel dissatisfied, give him up, or treat him at will, and regret it when the patience is exhausted.”

Ai Jing Chu couldn’t remember how many times he had said these words to others. Many of the parents who came to consult him were swearing, but they were hesitant when they heard it. Some feel that they cannot bear that burden, while others feel that it is too unfortunate for their children to grow up like this.

He explained time and time again without any subjective emotions, not to persuade people to give up, nor to give people hope, but he just felt that those parents who knew their children were flawed and gave birth, should not do it for the sake of impulsiveness and temporary love. And bring a lifelong shadow to the child.

He has treated many children with cleft lip and palate, many of them were sent from welfare institutions around the world, some were abandoned before they reached the age of one month, and some were abandoned by their families after a short period of treatment at the age of three or four.

In fact, the fact that they were abandoned by their mother may have a greater impact on them in their future lives than the cleft lip and palate deformity.

After Ai Jing Chu finished speaking, the cousin fell silent.

Ai Jing Chu stood up and said, “You can go back and discuss it with your family.” He knew that sometimes it is difficult to make a decision, and there are many objective factors that will affect the family, so he did not want Mu Cheng He and his wife to be present.

Before leaving, the cousin said to Ai Jing Chu: “Doctor Ai, if I have any questions, can I contact you again?”

Ai Jing Chu agreed: “Teacher Mu has my number, you can call me.”

After Mu Cheng and his group left, he returned to the laboratory to wait for the two students. After about ten minutes, the two children who came to invite him to look at the topic of the thesis came late. It is estimated that the two dared to come to Ai Jing Chu together because they had strengthened each other’s courage.

After finishing his work, Ai Jing Chu was going to go home to sleep, but the jet lag was still too much. The flight was delayed last night, and he finally got home in the middle of the night. He barely closed his eyes and went to the hospital to see Mu Cheng He early in the morning. It was too cold last night. Compared with the previous few days, the temperature dropped a lot. He felt that he had a cold and seemed to have a fever. Ai Jing Chu ate something made by Aunt Li, and went upstairs to lie on her bed. He looked at the date on the phone screen. Tomorrow is January 19th. He had to cheer up no matter what. Thinking of this, he closed his eyes and forced himself to fall asleep immediately.

At the same time, Zeng Li and Ma Yi Yi were preparing their luggage for Dongshan.

Dongshan is about two hours away from A City by high-speed car. The road conditions are very good. There are many temples on the mountain, and there are many believers. It is also a famous hot spring town.

Every Friday afternoon, the library will be closed early, and all staff will participate in political studies. For this group activity, the director of the curator pretended to be public for a while to save time in political study, and informed everyone to leave work early at noon, and sent a car to let everyone act first. Because the cafe was suddenly too busy, Ma Yi Yi asked Zeng Li to leave first with her colleagues, saying that she would drive there later.

It was only after three o’clock in the afternoon when the large troops arrived at the resort hotel on the mountainside of Dongshan. After Sister Wu from the trade union allocated a room, everyone put down their luggage and went to the hot springs with their equipment. Zeng Li was thinking about Ma Yi Yi in her heart, so she always paid attention to whether there was an incoming call on her mobile phone.

It wasn’t until dinner that Ma Yi Yi called, “I’m OK, finally!”

“Where are you now? Do you want me to wait for you to eat?”

“No need, just prepare your room and wait for me. I just had something to eat, and now I’m going to get on the expressway. I guess I’ll be at the Dongshan Tollgate at eight o’clock.” Ma Yiyi replied.

“Oh, then I’ll wait for you at the uphill intersection at the foot of the mountain.”

“Don’t,” Ma Yi Yi hurriedly stopped, “You tell me how to get to the bottom of the mountain, and I’ll just drive up.”

“No, it’s too late. I don’t worry about you driving the night train alone on the mountain road.” Zeng Li said firmly.

Colleagues had dinner, some made an appointment for an evening poker game, some planned to go to a hot spring, and some wanted to see the night view. Zeng Li didn’t want to disturb anyone, so she took her things and prepared to go out by herself.

It’s actually very simple for tourists to go down the mountain. If you don’t have a self-driving car, you can take the sightseeing cable car down the cliff and it will take more than half an hour. The cable car is open from 6:00 am to 7:00 pm. After Zeng Li asked the hotel staff at the front desk for the timetable of the cable car going up and down the mountain, she hurried over there just in time for others to get off work.

At the foot of the mountain are the ancient streets of Dongshan Town.

It is said to be an ancient street, but it was actually built later for the purpose of developing tourism. The planning was not very good in the past few years, and it is still quite chaotic until now. There are countless people running private cars on the street, soliciting customers for family hotels, selling souvenirs, and even introducing eminent monks to tourists. As night fell, many people dispersed, but there were still some left around Zeng Li, asking her from time to time if she would like to ask the master to consecrate her face, if she would like to stay in a hotel, if she would like to take a car up the mountain, and some people were riding motorcycles, turning around on the road to solicit business.

Zeng Li first checked that it was still early, so she walked around the largest grocery store in the town, which was less than 100 square meters. She didn’t buy anything, she just used it to kill time, so she walked from one corner to another, and stood in front of the shelf to read the ingredient list of many products. Later, the boss in the supermarket almost thought she was here to shoplift. No, he simply sent a salesperson to stand beside her and stare at her. In order to prove her innocence, she had to awkwardly pick up two bottles of water and take them to the cashier to pay.

It wasn’t until Zeng Li went out with the two bottles of water that she felt that she had bought the worst thing. She didn’t bring a bag at first, so she took some change for convenience, so she could put both hands in her pockets to keep warm, but now she had to carry a bottle of cold mineral water in the cold windy night. If you just throw it away like this, it feels like a waste.

She went back to the entrance of the town and waited for Ma Yi Yi at the archway on the way up the mountain. Seeing that the crowds are becoming less and less crowded, there are almost no passers-by except for the security guards in the parking lot. At this time, the mobile phone rang.

“Xiaoyu, it’s not good!” Ma Yi Yi opened her mouth and said anxiously.

“What’s wrong?” Zeng Li asked.

“My grandma fell!”

“Is she okay??”

“I don’t know. She’s going to Wu Ying’s hospital. I might have to turn around and go back right away.”

“Then go back quickly.” Zeng Li also became anxious for her.

“Ah, Wu Ying’s call came in. I don’t know if I received it from my grandma. If the situation has changed, I will tell her first.” Ma Yi Yi said.

“Okay!” Zeng Li quickly hung up the phone.

Zeng Li stood alone in the wind, waiting for news from Ma Yi Yi.

Two minutes later, Ma Yi Yi called for the second time.

“How is it?” Zeng Li asked.

“Wu Ying asked for my father’s phone number, and they contacted him first, least I waste time by passing the message back and forth.”

“That’s good.”

“Can you do it alone?” Ma Yi Yi suddenly remembered the situation at Zeng Li’s side, “Are you waiting for me at the foot of the mountain? Why don’t I pick you up first, anyway, I’ll be there in about twenty minutes.”

“It’s okay. I have a few colleagues who accompanied me. They came to play in the street anyway, and they will drive back to the hotel in a while. You can leave me alone, and quickly find the nearest toll booth, turn around and go to the hospital to see your grandma. Zeng Li knew the position of grandma in Ma Yi Yi’s heart, and had already used the few minutes just now to plan how to coax her.

“Really?”

“Really.” Zeng Li said, “It’s more real than pearls.”

Ma Yi Yi pretended to be annoyed at her and said, “When you swear next time, can you change your lines?”

Zeng Li couldn’t help laughing himself.

When the phone hung up and Zeng Li stayed alone in the night, she began to worry about his situation.

She walked to the security booth and asked the security guard, “Master, do you know that there are still cars going up the mountain?”

The man was watching TV on the chair and heating the electric heater, when he heard the voice look up and say: “The cable car and the passenger car closed early, didn’t you see there were a lot of private cars here just now? You can go to the street over there and ask..”

“Oh.”

“However, it’s late now, and many people don’t run the mountain road anymore, so you need to trouble yourself.”

“Oh, thank you.”

“Why did a little girl wait so late to go up? Why didn’t you go up so early?” the uncle muttered.

Zeng Li smiled and walked towards the street he pointed to without answering.

As a result, she finally stopped a taxi without even asking where she was going, and they said that she was returning home from get off work and would not take passengers. A driver driving a private car across the street said loudly, “Sister, where are you going? I’ll take you! The price is negotiable. Why do we have taxis in the countryside? Everyone goes home.”

Zeng Li didn’t dare to get in the car, and didn’t even dare to answer, but only dared to move forward. The car drove slowly and followed her for a while, seeing that she was determined, he went to solicit other business. Zeng Li continued to look at the taxi on the side of the road, who knew that, as the fat driver said just now, it was impossible to get a regular taxi in this place.

It’s raining again.

Her heart became more and more flustered, more and more panicked. Before she was willing to throw away the two bottles of mineral water, she moved them to one side of her arms and touched the money in her pocket with one free hand, secretly blaming herself for being too careless when she went out. Finally, she made up her mind, went back to the private car in one go, and asked, “Master, are you going to the Dongshan Hotel on the mountain? How much is it?”

The fat driver originally smoked with the window open, but he was stunned when he heard Zeng Li’s words, and asked, “You said you want to go to the scenic spot?”

“Yeah.” Zeng Li nodded.

“You’re going to go up the mountain for a long time?” The fat driver said “why didn’t you say it earlier”, and waved his hands while refusing, “It’s too slippery, don’t go! Don’t go!”

Zeng Li was dumbfounded, this was something she hadn’t expected at all. She only thought that even if the cable car and the scenic sightseeing bus were off work, even if Ma Yi Yi couldn’t come due to an emergency, even if a taxi couldn’t be taken, even if a black car ripped her off, it was something that could be discussed.

Someone on the other side of the road also answered, “It’s raining lightly now, the mountain must be frozen, and the tires are going to slip.”

The fat driver said again: “Besides, I have to send you off, and I have to go back down the mountain overnight. Last time, we had a friend who sent a guest for some money on a snowy day, but when he came back, he slipped out of the curve and almost lost it.” I’m dead.” After finishing speaking, he ignored Zeng Li.

Someone said: “Sister, if you’re not in a hurry, I’ll introduce you to a place to stay, and you can go up the mountain tomorrow?”

Suddenly someone next to her laughed, “You boy, you don’t pull a cart, when did you start a hotel business?”

“Didn’t my wife and her sister just open a hotel? Introduce some business.”

The man whispered, “Don’t tell me your wife is not at home, you want to introduce this beauty to your home?”

The voice was small, but extremely clear, and immediately made several people on the side of the road burst into laughter.

Zeng Li stood there at a loss, and was about to call Wu Ying or her colleagues for help when someone from across the road called her, “Girl, I mean that little girl!” Panting, pointing at her, he shouted, “Hey—didn’t you say you were going up the mountain? There’s a car! There’s a car!”

It turned out that as soon as Zeng Li left, a car came down the mountain, and the other person happened to come down the mountain to buy medicine in the town, so he stopped and asked the uncle which way to go to the pharmacy. As a result, the uncle was careful at the time and asked if he would go back, so when he got the news, the uncle didn’t have time to take an umbrella, and rushed here to find Zeng Li in the light rain.

“I saw that the young man driving the car was very decent, not like a bad guy, you can talk to him about it.” The uncle said.

Zeng Li was moved to thank.

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“Don’t dawdle, hurry up and find someone else, what if they leave after our delay?” As he spoke, the old man pointed in the direction and urged anxiously, “Hurry up! It’s a black car. A car with a license plate in A City.”

Zeng Li didn’t dare to delay, and trotted towards the pharmacy far down the street.

The signboard light box at the entrance of the pharmacy was very brightly lit, and Zeng Li saw it immediately after turning a corner. When she ran a little closer, she found that a black off-road vehicle with a A City license plate was parked not far from the pharmacy.

She seemed to have grasped a little hope, panting heavily and quickened her pace.

She was getting closer and closer to the pharmacy, and she could basically see the counter of the pharmacy and the figure in front of the door. The man turned his back to her, so she couldn’t see his face clearly, and she couldn’t verify whether the “not like a bad person” that the uncle said was true. Then, the man turned around and went down two steps, and walked out from the pharmacy. Then, Zeng Li saw the other person’s profile.

Handsome eyebrows and tight lips.

That person was actually Ai Jing Chu.

For a while, Zeng Li felt as if he had been lost in a dark and claustrophobic underground cave for a long time, and suddenly found a passage through which was bright and sunny, and seemed to be forced to be bound in the sea.

She trotted and called out, “Teacher Ai.”

He seemed to have heard it, but he didn’t seem to hear it again, his walking pace slowed down, and he looked back uncertainly, while Zeng Li was standing in the dark across the street, separated by the road, people and trees happened to block his sight.

Then she called a second time as she was crossing the road.

A motorcycle equipped with a subwoofer happened to pass by, and the music was turned on deafeningly, and Zeng Li’s voice happened to be covered up as it passed by.

He was tall and long-legged, and he was about to return to the car in a few steps and leave without a trace.

Zeng Li panicked and didn’t care too much. He chased after him in three steps and two steps at a time. With all his strength, she grabbed his sleeve from behind, and at the same time shouted:

“Ai Jing Chu!”

Ai Jing Chu turned around in surprise and saw Zeng Li.

Many years later, Ai Jing Chu can still recall this scene. On a rainy winter night, in a small town with over-developed tourism, the girl with a red nose and cheeks and panting, stood in a panic on the cluttered and muddy sidewalk, pulling his clothes and calling his name loudly. Probably because of the rapid movement in the cold wind, the eyes were moist and shiny like tears. A few strands of hair on the forehead were messily attached to the skin, and there were two bottles of mineral water in her arms strangely.

I don’t know if it’s because the doctor is jealous of the doctor or what, but he has always been annoyed to see a doctor and take medicine. Just like many doctors in the respiratory department keep telling patients that smoking is harmful to their health and they must quit smoking when they go to work for consultation. Then after work, they find a pack of cigarettes to smoke happily. So he arrived at Dongshan at noon, and he didn’t plan to drive out after dark, but the cold became more and more serious, and his body temperature did not drop for a long time. He was afraid that he would really have a high fever in the middle of the night, which would worry the old man, so he reluctantly went to the town. I went to buy medicine, but he didn’t know that he was pulled from behind after walking a few steps out of the pharmacy.

He froze for a moment, still a little unresponsive to what was going on.

Zeng Li came back to her senses, quickly withdrew her hands, loosened her clothes, and stammered to correct the address again: “Ai… Teacher Ai.” She then explained, “I heard from the old man at the mountain gate that you are driving up the mountain, can I take a ride? I waited for my friend to go to the Dongshan Hotel, but I missed the time.”

She continued incoherently: “I was going to take a taxi, but no one wanted to go up. I called you over there twice, but you didn’t hear me, so I was in a hurry, afraid that you would leave, I… I…” Actually, what she almost said was: I can give you the fare.

Fortunately, Zeng Li kept his mouth shut in a timely manner before her brain convulsed. She glanced at his car, four laps, “Olympic brother” – Audi. Taking a taxi in A City, the starting fare for an ordinary car is 8 yuan. If you meet a Volkswagen or a Pentium, the price will increase by 2 yuan because of the quality of the car. Zeng Li was thinking about it by herself. There was no Audi in the rental, so she didn’t know how much the starting price should be.

At this time, he took the key out of his coat pocket, pressed the remote control lock, and said lightly, “Get in the car.”

Zeng Li opened the rear door and sat in the back row. Usually, except for Ma Yi Yi and Wu Ying’s car, she likes to sit in the back of many people’s cars. She has to wear a seat belt in front, and her limbs cannot be stretched, so even if she takes a taxi, she likes to sit in the back. So, Ai Jing Chu drove in front, and she sat behind the driver’s seat.

As soon as she looked up, she could see Ai Jing Chu’s eyes in the rearview mirror.

So did he.

After the car moved, Zeng Li realised that he had forgotten one of the most important words, and hurriedly added to Ai Jing Chu in the rearview mirror: “By the way, Teacher Ai, my name is Zeng Li.”

“I know.” When he said this, he was turning the steering wheel to move the car, his eyes were fixed on the reflector seriously, he didn’t look at her, and there was no disturbance.

At the gate of the mountain, Zeng Li asked Ai Jing Chu to stop the car for a while, and she ran to thank the old man and reassure him.

The uncle said: “It’s good to sit down. The young man has a kind face, and he looks like a good man.”

Zeng Li smiled, and looked back at the car, wanting to see why this cold-looking man made the uncle think he had a kind face. Unexpectedly, as soon as her eyes fell on him, he happened to look over too, Zeng Li immediately looked away, not daring to look at him again.

When bidding farewell, the uncle said worriedly: “But little girl, you must be cautious, even acquaintances should be a little vigilant. I wrote down the license plate, and you also write down our phone number. If anything happens, call me.”

Zeng Li happily responded, but she didn’t agree in her heart, because she knew that Ai Jing Chu was really a good person.

When returning to the car for the second time, Zeng Li struggled in his mind, hesitantly went around to the other side, opened the co-pilot’s door, and sat next to Ai Jing Chu.

“Okay?” Ai Jingchu asked.

“Okay.” Zeng Li nodded.

The heater in the car was fully turned on, and music was still playing on the stereo, probably because he turned it on while he was waiting for her. He put into gear, stepped on the accelerator, and the speed of the car slowly increased. After half a minute, the alarm sounded beeping.

“Seat belt,” he said.

“Oh.” Only then did Zeng Li think of it, and quickly tied it up.

It was still raining outside, and it fell on the car window thinly, layer by layer, gradually making the sight blurred, and it disappeared without a trace when the wiper wiped.

The visibility outside the window was extremely low, and there were many and sharp curves, so he drove very cautiously, and he would be very careful at every sharp curve where he could not see the road ahead. She doesn’t get motion sickness very often, but when she gets to the mountain road, she will suffer from tinnitus and hiccups, especially when she is in Wu Ying’s car. Wu Ying has a reckless personality. She drove very fast when she saw no one around her without a car, and slammed on the brakes when turning a corner. Once, Wu Ying dropped her mobile phone, and she even bent over to pick it up while driving, so frightened Zeng Li yelled: “You are going wrong! There is a car coming from the opposite side, let him go!”

When Wu Ying raised her head and asked, “Where is that? I didn’t see it”, the other party had already run behind.

Zeng Li said angrily, “Fortunately, I saw you.”

To use Ma Yi Yi’s wicked words: if she gets terminally ill one day, she should buy a high-value insurance first, and then take Wu Ying’s car. This way, her parents will still have an insurance company to rely on for the rest of their lives, which is considered a life-saving insurance policy, worth it.

But Ai Jing Chu’s calmness and prudence are completely opposite to Wu Ying’s.

They hadn’t spoken, the music in the car covering the silence appropriately.

At this moment, the singing in the stereo suddenly stopped, and turned into a ringtone, and the DVD navigation display on the console indicated that there was an incoming call. Ai Jing Chu glanced at the number on the screen, pressed the call button at hand, and picked up.

“Hello,” he said.

“Hello, Doctor Ai, I’m Xue Xiaomei, I was looking for you yesterday, Mu Cheng He’s cousin.”

Ai Jing Chu’s mobile phone is bound to the car’s Bluetooth, so the voice of the call is transmitted from the speaker through the hands-free, and Zeng Li can also hear it clearly.

Zeng Li heard that woman’s voice was very nasal, either she had a cold or she had just cried, if she hadn’t called “Doctor Ai” first, she would have thought that she was here to ask Ai Jing Chu for debts.

The woman said again: “About the child, my husband and my mother-in-law both want to consult you face to face, we…” At this point, the other end of the phone didn’t continue talking, as if crying.

Zeng Li sneaked a glance at Ai Jing Chu.

Ai Jingchu said: “Ms. Xue, wait a moment, I will call you later.”

After hanging up, Ai Jing Chu pulled the car over and stopped, then opened the door and got out of the car, walked forward to a tree, and dialed the phone back.

He stood in front of the headlights, so Zeng Li could slowly observe his every move.

Ordinary people would walk up and down while talking while answering the phone, or change the support point of the body to the left foot and then to the right foot, but Ai Jing Chu was different. He just stood like this without changing the centre of gravity. He didn’t move his footsteps either, he was straight and motionless.

The place he chose happened to be where the leaves were most dense, and the surrounding ground was soaked by the seeping rain, only his circle was dry and light-colored.

At the beginning, when he opened his mouth, there was still a cloud of white mist coming out of his mouth, but gradually the cloud of heat disappeared.

The car was still on, and the wipers, heater, and stereo were still working. Zeng Li was sitting in the warm car, while he stayed in the freezing night.

Suddenly, he looked up at Zeng Li, just in time to meet Zeng Li’s eyes looking at him, and then walked towards Zeng Li.

Zeng Li found it very strange that even if he finished speaking and was about to get in the car, he would still go through the door on the other side instead of coming to her. What is he doing? Seeing him getting closer and closer, Zeng Li suddenly remembered what the old man said, “It is imperative to guard against others”. Could it be that she was mistaken and trusted him in vain? Is he going to cross her in circles while talking on the phone, or dismember her in pieces and leave her in the wilderness?

Ai Jing Chu stopped in front of Zeng Li’s door and knocked on the car window.

Zeng Li pressed it suspiciously.

“It’s hard to say how long it will take to have surgery after birth. It depends on the child’s weight and condition.” While answering the other party’s question, he motioned Zeng Li to open the co-pilot’s car drawer in front of his knee.

She obediently complied.

The drawer was pushed open, and there were several document bags and a pack of cigarettes inside.

He bent down and poked his head in, bringing in a trace of cold moisture, then he reached out in front of Zeng Li and took a pack of cigarettes from the drawer. So, he was so close to her that she could breathe the cold air he exhaled. She saw the roots of his hair, and the moles on the skin behind his ears.

Ai Jing Chu got up and returned to his original position, took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth, then took out a lighter from his pocket, and lit it slowly. During the whole process, he used only one hand, but he was extremely skilled and sophisticated.

Gradually, Zeng Li saw that the rain had wet the lump of road under his feet. He smoked one cigarette after another, sometimes he was talking, and sometimes he was listening silently. Occasionally, he would talk for a long time, and the smoke between his fingers would burn freely like this. The sparks flickered brightly and dimly, and after burning to a piece of ashes, he would hang his head and flick with his fingers.

Finally, he hung up the phone, but the cigarette in his hand was not exhausted, so he stayed where he was and smoked it quietly. As a result, the phone rang again on the way back to the car. This time, the conversation was very concise and ended in a few sentences.

He opened the door and returned to the car, and said “I’ve been waiting” to Zeng Li. As soon as he opened his mouth, the air in his throat suddenly alternated between hot and cold, and he coughed several times, and his fingers on the steering wheel were already red from the cold outside.

Zeng Li couldn’t help but talk a lot: “If you have a cold, it’s better not to smoke, you’re still a doctor.” She didn’t know why she blurted out this sentence, she was a little complaining, a little concerned, a little incomprehensible. For his rescue in the middle of the night, maybe it was a warm-hearted persuasion, but she regretted it as soon as she said it.

Ai Jing Chu didn’t answer, just moved his frozen fingers, put down the handbrake, and after the car walked a few meters, he suddenly said: “The doctor will also say that it is best for women not to smoke at any time.”

Zeng Li suddenly turned his face to look at him, surprised for several seconds, and then slowly turned his head, her cheeks flushed.

He is talking about her.

When did she first learn to smoke? It seems to be New Year’s Day in the freshman year. The three of them in their dormitory and several classmates went to the square to count down the New Year’s bell. It was already one or two o’clock in the morning on the way back to school, and they couldn’t get a taxi, so they made an appointment to walk all the way back. On the way, Wu Ying taught her to smoke while walking in a hurry.

In fact, at that time, Wu Ying was also half-baked. Wu Ying said to her: “Just take a puff and then spit out the smoke.”

“Where does it come from? Nose or mouth?” she asked curiously.

“Mouth, how uncomfortable it is to use your nose.”

“Oh.” She learned to do it again, but choked tears.

Ma Yiyi said: “You two’s rebellious period came a bit late, right?”

Unexpectedly, the person who brought her into the industry later quit, and she had this habit, but she smoked very little and very covertly, and was hardly noticed by anyone.

Once when Wu Ying celebrated her birthday, she called a lot of classmates and colleagues to eat and sing. That day, she was in a particularly bad mood, so she quietly went to an empty box next door to light a cigarette, but Wu Ying came out to find her halfway. As soon as Zeng Li heard her voice, she was so frightened that she threw away the cigarette butt in a hurry. After Wu Ying entered the door, she asked curiously, “Why are you here alone, and you don’t turn on the light?” .”

This is the closest she has come to being exposed.

And this little secret was discovered by Ai Jing Chu.

She really smokes very rarely, and she rinses her mouth every time she finishes smoking. She also cleaned her teeth specially for orthodontics, so there should be no smoke stains on her teeth. Every time I go back to see the teeth, I am even more cautious about oral hygiene. If you really want to talk about flaws, there is only one time, that is, the day he came to the library to return books.

Zeng Li thought about it for a long time, but she didn’t know how to explain it, because after all, the impression was too bad. But then she thought, why did she explain it to him? So, with a mentality of breaking the jar, she simply said nothing.

The CD played songs one after another. One song was “Looking Back Again” performed by Hao Lei. Zeng Li also played this version at Carol’s, but he didn’t have a deep impression.

Such a familiar song on such a night road sounded a little emotional. Some emotions accumulated in Zeng Li’s heart, and she had to find someone to talk to, so she changed her usual restraint and broke the silence: “Teacher Ai, you seem to be still not married?”

“En.”

“Are you accompanying your girlfriend to Dongshan for vacation, or is it a unit activity like me?”

“No.”

“…”

He solved her three problems with just three words, so she turned her head away, didn’t ask any more questions, and didn’t continue to talk to him to make fun of herself.

The female singer was still singing that song in her unique hoarse voice, and the wipers in front of the glass were shaking rhythmically in front of her eyes, but the air in the car was slightly different from before because of the smell of tobacco on his body.

After a while, he said, “I’m here with my family and I’ll stay for a few days.”

It was pitch black outside the window, and nothing could be seen except the vegetation against the headlights. Foggy and rainy nights are so daunting. Occasionally when the car enters a curve, it will suddenly encounter a cloud of white smoke intertwined with rain and mist blocking the road ahead, scaring Zeng Li several times.

And Ai Jing Chu looked ahead calmly with his eyes, and still drove the car very steadily.

Turned another corner and reached a fork in the road. Zeng Li saw a sign on the upper right – the altitude here is 1,800 meters.

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Slowly, the rain seemed to slow down, and the speed of hitting the windshield slowed down, but the raindrops turned into big ones. After a while, when Zeng Li saw the scenery next to him, she suddenly remembered that it wasn’t rain, it was snow.

“It’s really snowing. I haven’t seen heavy snowfall yet.” Zeng Li put his face on the side window and looked out of the car curiously. As soon as she touched her nose and exhaled, the glass was covered with a layer of mist. After she wiped it clear with her hands, she looked outside again.

Ai Jing Chu glanced at her, but said nothing.

Zeng Li said as if talking to himself: “Is there more snow on the mountain?”

At this moment, Zeng Li’s cell phone rang, and it was Ma Yi Yi calling, and Ai Jing Chu then turned off the speaker.

“Xiaoyu, have you gone back?” Ma Yiyi asked. The voice of Zeng Li’s mobile phone receiver was not loud, but it was very clear in this quiet and small space.

“I did earlier.” Zeng Li said, “I’m in the hotel room.”

“Is the colleague who drove you back male or female?” Ma Yi Yi asked with a smirk.

Zeng Li thought, if it wasn’t for her, would she be in such a mess? In the end, she still had the nerve to look for gossip? In order to quickly extinguish Ma Yi Yi’s boring imagination, Zeng Li planned to answer “It’s a woman”.

But Zeng Li looked awkwardly at Ai Jing Chu next to her, she bet that he could hear every word they said clearly, so she confessed helplessly: “Man.”

“Handsome?” Ma Yiyi chased after him.

“Oh.” Zeng Li responded indiscriminately and pretending to be calm, but his heart was about to collapse, and she wanted to strangle her right away.

“Just ‘oh’, are you handsome or not?” Ma Yi Yi pushed her into a desperate situation.

“Is your grandma okay?” Zeng Li wanted to cry but changed the subject.

“It was scary at first. She went to the bathroom alone, but she couldn’t get up when she sat on the floor. She didn’t respond to her, so she just stared and scared my parents to death. In the end, she was sent to Wu Ying’s hospital. When she got to the doctor, she recovered. The doctor asked her about her condition, and she said she didn’t hurt anywhere.”

“Then will you come tomorrow? They arranged for you to live with me in the afternoon. If you don’t come, I will be alone.”

“I’ll go if you introduce a handsome guy.” Ma Yi Yi’s mood was the same as her grandma’s, and she had obviously improved. After hearing Zeng Li’s hesitations, she continued, “We agreed before, don’t eat alone.”

“Bah!” Zeng Li couldn’t bear to cut off the phone.

Zeng Li was so guilty that she could hardly imagine Ai Jing Chu’s expression.

She, Ma Yi Yi and Wu Ying often get together to comment on and point fingers at the men’s appearance, but those are all girls’ private conversations, who would have thought that the person involved would sit next to them?

When Zeng Li was full of thoughts, Ai Jing Chu coughed, at first he coughed twice, and then coughed continuously for a long time, even the car was forced to stop.

Zeng Li said: “Did you go to buy cold medicine just now? If you have it, take it quickly.”

Ai Jing Chu regained his breath and waved his hand, “Go back and eat, or you will fall asleep.”

“Oh.” Zeng Li didn’t know how to reply. After all, he is a doctor. She suddenly remembered, “Then drink some water to moisten your throat.” After she finished speaking, she twisted away the mineral water that she had been holding around all the time. Passed the lid to him, and added, “It shouldn’t be cold.”

Ai Jing Chu took it and took two sips.

Sure enough, it was not cold at all.

The water had been held in her arms by her for a long time, and it touched her body temperature, making it very warm.

He took another sip.

It didn’t take long for the second sign to appear—the altitude here is 2,000 meters.

As the mountains get higher and higher, the snowflakes will no longer melt when they fall to the ground. Those white dots pile up on the trees and grass leaves, and the scope becomes larger and larger, and finally spread to the road.

Although Zeng Li had no experience in driving in the snow, he had learned something from TV, the news, and the driver of the black car just now. As the snow accumulated thicker and thicker, her mood gradually changed from curiosity to nervousness, and she forgot to keep counting the altitude.

Finally, Ai Jing Chu slowly pulled over the car and stopped, looked at the snowy road in front of him and said, “We can’t drive up any further, it’s not safe.”

Zeng Li was stunned and lost her mind, “Then what should we do?”

He raised his hand to look at his watch, and sighed slightly, “Let’s walk, the hotel is not far away.” After speaking, he got out of the car, walked to the back of the car, took out a flashlight from the toolbox, and tried it on.

Zeng Li then got out of the car and didn’t realize how cold it was until her feet landed on the ground.

Ai Jing Chu locked the car, and walked ahead with a flashlight to illuminate the road. There was no umbrella in the car, so Zeng Li put the hat on her down jacket over her head. Her hair was so much and long that it was tied up in a high ponytail, and the hat didn’t fit well, so she had to let it down first and gather it at the sides. After she finished these tasks, she found that Ai JingChu had already walked several meters away. She was frightened and hurriedly stumbled to follow.

“Teacher Ai!” She called him out of breath.

He turned around.

“I want to go ahead of you.”

He stopped and let her go first.

When she was a child, Zeng Li went home at night, and there was a dark road that he had to pass. There were no lights or houses on the road, and he couldn’t see her fingers. The adults could only use flashlights. Even if a large group of people were walking together, Zeng Li had to walk among them. She was timid and extremely afraid of the dark, and at times like this she fantasied that something would snatch her away silently from behind, and the more she thought about it, the creepier she felt, and had to run to the front of the line in terror. But the front is also scary, because maybe there will be a monster coming from the darkness. If everyone turns around and runs back together, then she will change from the first to the last again…

Later Wu Ying frightened her: “Actually, the person in the middle is the worst. If something that can eat people comes, the ones in front will walk too fast, the preparation work has not been done, and the ones behind will not catch up. Intensive, one pounce, one pounce, one pounce.”

But now, with only her and Ai Jing Chu, she would rather choose the front and leave the safety of the back to him.

It is the main road, although there is snow, but it is not too difficult to walk. She was in front, and he walked behind with a flashlight. The light of the flashlight just shone behind Zeng Li, casting a long shadow on the snowy ground ahead.

It was a very quiet snowy night.

It seemed that apart from his and her breathing, and the crunching of stepping on the snow, there was only the sound of snow falling.

Suddenly, Zeng Li’s ears caught something strange in the woods, and she froze in fear.

She said, “Listen.” There was a voice, it sounded like someone was crying, Zeng Li began to feel nervous when he thought of this metaphor.

Ai Jing Chu also stopped.

“What sound?”

Ai Jing Chu distinguished, “It should be an owl.”

Zeng Li continued to walk forward suspiciously, but felt that the voice seemed to be ahead, and couldn’t hold back after walking a few steps, so he changed to walk beside Ai Jing Chu.

In the past, when she felt scared, she would sing softly, but because Ai Jing Chu was on the side, she had to pay attention to her image, so she talked instead.

Zeng Li suddenly remembered the phone call just now.

“Do patients often call you during their breaks?” He continued talking for more than half an hour.

“Occasionally.”

“What happened to that person… her child?” It sounded so sad that I cried on the phone.

“It’s a pregnant woman, the fetus is more than six months old, and it was found to have cleft lip and palate.”

“Huh?” Zeng Li asked, “Is that the cleft lip that everyone talks about?”

“Yes.”

“Then what to do?”

“At first she wanted to give birth, but later her family objected.”

“Did you give up in the end?”

“Yeah,” he said.

“Will it be cured if the child is born?”

“It depends on what the standard of ‘good’ is. Just like when you come to have your teeth fixed, if you only have 80 or 90 percent requirements for the result, maybe what you get in the end will be 100% good. Conversely, it is forever It’s not perfect enough.”

The topic seems to be a bit heavy.

Zeng Li’s cell phone beeped, she took it out of her pocket, and saw that it was a text message from Ma Yi Yi:

Then came another one, still from Ma Yi Yi:

Zeng Li glanced at Ai Jing Chu while looking at his phone, afraid that if he was not paying attention, Ai Jing Chu would leave her behind.

“Can I see the sunrise tomorrow?” she asked.

“As long as the weather is fine.”

Zeng Li raised his eyes and looked around, feeling that there was little hope for her to wait for the weather to clear up. At this time, a branch of a tree in front of them broke in the middle of the road, and they had to go around.

Thick snow had accumulated on the branches, and Zeng Li couldn’t help reaching out and grabbing a handful in his hands. She followed Ai Jing Chu for a long walk, because she was still sweating a little due to going uphill, so she didn’t feel cold hands while holding Xue at this moment, but found it interesting.

Ai Jingchu glanced sideways at the small movements in her hands.

She squeezed the handful of snow back and forth in her hands, and finally it became a snowball the size of a ping-pong ball.

Zeng Li took it to his nose and sniffed it, then opened his mouth and took a bite.

That thing really froze the teeth, and it melted when it touched the tip of the tongue. It was cold and tasteless.

Ai Jing Chu glanced at her hesitantly, “You…”

She pursed her lips in embarrassment and smiled.

He watched her for two or three seconds, then turned his head and continued walking forward.

Before Zeng Li threw the snowball away, she lowered her head and secretly took another sip. After taking two steps, she suddenly heard a very small, very small bang.

She was a little strange, because the voice seemed to come from her head, not her thoughts, but her real head. She stopped and recalled carefully. It was a strange feeling, as if a string had snapped, or, perhaps, a screw had fallen out.

Screw?

Nervously, she remembered the braces in her mouth and checked them with her tongue. fine. But I checked it again worriedly, only to find that the metal nail on the front tooth was loose.

Her stagnation made Ai Jing Chu look back to find her in doubt. Then, he saw Zeng Li standing where he was, touching the aligners of his front teeth with his hand, with a serious expression on his face.

He walked back.

“Teacher Ai.” She looked at him with a face of imminent disaster.

“Which one?” He wanted to remind her just now, the sudden cold and hot will break the steel wire, as expected.

“Front teeth.”

She was wearing flat boots without high heels. Standing with her mouth open like this, Ai Jing Chu had to lower her head to adjust for the height difference.

He adjusted the aperture of the flashlight and shone it on Zeng Li’s mouth, and found that the upper left aligner bracket that should have been glued to the teeth was loose, and the thin wire connected to it was also broken.

“Anything else?” he asked.

“Have no idea.”

He couldn’t wash his hands and sanitize his hands, and he didn’t have disposable rubber gloves, so he didn’t dare to touch her mouth to check the situation inside her mouth. He could only look at it with the light of the flashlight. The height between him and her is not suitable, and the angle of sight and the light are a bit off. Even if he moves the flashlight, it will not help, and he is afraid that the strong light will hit her eyes and make her uncomfortable. So, he had no choice but to raise his hand to gently lift her chin with his index finger, and then helped her to the upper right, which made her a little better.

His fingers were hot, this was Zeng Li’s only feeling other than the discomfort of having his neck up and his mouth open.

Skin to skin, it’s not the warm touch, nor is it the damp heat of climbing a mountain and sweating, but the body temperature is really hot, so that Zeng Li began to suspect that he had a high fever?

“Should only have dropped one,” he said.

“What should I do?”

“We will reattach it again next time.” Ai Jing Chu withdrew her hand and let her go.

“You have a fever.” Zeng Li said hesitantly.

“En.” Ai Jing Chu responded lightly, then adjusted the aperture of the flashlight, and continued walking as if nothing had happened, according to the road ahead.

“Does it matter?” Zeng Li followed up and asked.

“It’s okay.” He replied.

Every time she catches a cold, she has a cough and runny nose. Occasionally, she will have a fever once or twice when it is very serious. Once the fever starts, she will feel dizzy, her hands and feet are sore, and she feels like she is about to fall down at any time when she walks. How bad is that feeling? Oops.

She was a little worried about Ai Jing Chu, but due to the difference between men and women, they were not familiar with each other. For Zeng Li’s character, asking her to ask “Does it matter?” is already the limit. So, she fell silent, and didn’t pull him to talk anymore, wasting his energy in vain.

She slowed down, and he slowed down accordingly.

Fortunately, after turning a corner, Zeng Li saw the long-lost lights of the hotel ahead.

“It’s here!” Her mood rose with joy.

Hearing the words, Ai Jing Chu raised his eyes to look at the bright place.

When the two walked to the gate, the security guard on duty looked at them in disbelief.

Dongshan Hotel has four courtyards, which are divided into southeast and northwest. The north building is the main building, and the middle is an atrium garden and entertainment area. Behind the south building is a hot spring, and behind it is a single-family villa. The hot spring is also introduced into the villa.

Zeng Li asked: “We all live in the west building, where do you live?”

Ai Jing Chu said, “Let’s go to the west building.”

He followed her to the downstairs foyer of the west building. The first floor was the bar entertainment room, and there seemed to be quite a few people inside. A short, fat man in his 30s or 40s came outside. When he was going down the stairs, he saw Zeng Li and said hello, “Xiao Zeng, I was talking about you just now. Where did you hide?”

“Director Li.” Zeng Li smiled.

“Hurry up, everyone is playing cards inside.” After speaking, the man went to the other side.

“There are all colleagues over there?” Ai Jing Chu looked at the figures coming and going inside and asked.

“Yes.” Zeng Li continued to walk forward, after a few steps, he found that Ai Jing Chu hadn’t followed.

“You’re here, then I’ll go back.” Ai Jing Chu stood a few steps away and said to her.

“Thank you.”

He nodded and went back the same way. Zeng Li looked at his back, and felt that he was going in a more and more wrong direction, and he was going completely outside the hotel.

“Teacher Ai, where do you live?” Zeng Li chased him suspiciously and asked.

“Dongping Temple.” He said.

At this moment, Zeng Li was taken aback.

She never asked him where he was driving up the mountain, where he lived. Because the old man said that he was going back to the mountain, and there was no other hotel in Dongshan scenic area that could accommodate people on that road, except Dongshan Hotel, so he didn’t mention it, and she didn’t ask, and she didn’t ask. Never doubted.

He never thought that he would not go to the same place as her.

Dongping Temple.

Zeng Li knew this place, even if he only remembered the outline before, he could know it clearly after passing the section of road just now. Because she counted the first altitude sign in the car, at the fork that said “1800 meters”, Dongshan Hotel was to the right, and Dongping Temple was less than 500 meters to the left.

At that time, Ai Jing Chu had already arrived.

But he didn’t say anything, and continued to drive her up the mountain until the car couldn’t get in. He had a high fever and accompanied her to the destination in the snow until he took her to find her colleague.

For a moment, Zeng Li had mixed feelings and thoughts, and didn’t know what to do. It seemed that he would not agree to send him back or keep him.

Finally Zeng Li said, “Wait for me, I’ll get you an umbrella.”

After saying that, she quickly ran into the west building, pressed the elevator button, and the elevator stopped on the fourth floor and did not come down. In a hurry, she ran the stairs first. There are six floors in the west building, and she lives on the sixth floor. She climbed up in one breath, took out the room card, opened the luggage bag on the dressing table, and took out the umbrella she had prepared. Then, without closing the door, she ran down the stairs again.

When she returned to the place where Ai Jing Chu was standing just now, he was nowhere to be seen.