Chapter 40 Chapter Thirty-Nine

"I thought you knew." Zhang Mingrui's words came through the receiver, causing Luo Zhi's eardrum to ache. I thought you knew. She should have been the first to know. Luo Zhi couldn't connect to Sheng Huainan's mobile phone, and the phone that called Zhang Mingrui was also turned off. Three minutes before the start of the exam, Luo Zhi finally moved her pace with difficulty and walked towards the exam room. What played back in his mind over and over again was Sheng Huainan's back, just like the calm and high-spirited posture in high school, walking past his bright red name on the big screen calmly.

Luo Zhi came out of the examination room chaotically being crowded by the crowd, and immediately woke up, took out her cell phone, thought for a while, and dialed Zhang Mingrui's number. Hearing her hoarse voice again after a few months, Zhang Mingrui's attitude did not show alienation, but he was a little puzzled by her shock, but calmly said: "I thought you knew about it." Luo Zhi didn't know how to explain, so she could only continue to ask anxiously: "Why exactly?" "Luo Zhi, don't worry," Zhang Mingrui said softly, "He is actually unlucky, Sheng Huainan is helping others."

"What's the meaning?" "We took the English test in an examination room yesterday morning. In the composition topic of the Intensive Reading 3 test this time, there was an obvious over-the-top vocabulary. Many people didn't know it. But if you don't know this keyword, you can't write the composition. We A senior who often plays together also takes this English test. I knew beforehand that he must be covered by Sheng Huainan. Got it, I found the note from that senior brother, but I don't know what happened, it was him who suffered in the end..." Luo Zhi felt that Zhang Mingrui's every word was stabbing straight into her head. She tried her best to control her emotions and asked softly, "Sheng Huainan doesn't seem like someone who would do such stupid things. Will it be so?"

"Impossible, he would never take risks on this kind of thing, so we all felt that he was unbelievable yesterday afternoon. But now there is no way, the punishment came very fast, and it was already announced at four o'clock yesterday." "He didn't have an exam today, I saw him taking the elevator and going directly to your faculty office." "Maybe," Zhang Mingrui sighed. "I met him yesterday. He seemed calm and didn't talk much. We didn't know how to persuade him. We thought you... Well, in fact, if it's from this department If we caught the exam, our educational administration should just give a few warnings, but the school’s educational administration is different. By the way, you have seen it in the law guide exam. The group of teacher-level teachers are very ruthless Kill one as an example, after so many years of catching cheating, I have become addicted to it..."

"Zhang Mingrui!" "what?" "If you see Sheng Huainan, can you tell him for me that I'm waiting for his call?" Zhang Mingrui was silent for a long time before he opened his mouth and said, "Okay, I will talk to him." "Also," Luo Zhi didn't even eat breakfast, she was a little dizzy at the moment due to her excitement, she slowly sat on the steps while holding on to the handrail of the stairs, her eyes sparkled like the snowflakes on the TV screen. "Can you, tell me the phone number of that brother?" Luo Zhi rushed all the way to the east gate, and waited for twenty minutes under the scorching sun before arriving at a taxi.The car was speeding on the Fourth Ring Road, and the high-rise buildings on both sides were all thrown behind and intertwined into a blurred net.It was as if there was a train, blowing the wind, roaring past her mind.

There is no one in the villa, and the door is locked. The wall of rose flowers in the back has been messed up like a withered vine because no one has taken care of it.The sky darkened little by little, and after a while, it was a thick gray-blue, which evoked the most solemn emotions in people's hearts for no reason. When Zhu Yan walked along the flower path, what she saw was Luo Zhi, who was sitting on the steps of her house under such a sky, looking tired but miserable. It seems that the figure is extremely small. "I called you, but I couldn't get through. I thought you had already gone to Singapore, but I still didn't give up. I wanted to come over and give it a try. I kept telling myself to wait another ten minutes, but I have been waiting until now." She cheered up, Smiling and said to Zhu Yan.

"My mobile phone broke when I was arguing with the real estate agent this morning. If I didn't suddenly realize that something was left here, I might not come here today." Zhu Yan was a little embarrassed, "Your lips are dry , Haven’t eaten or drank all day? What’s the matter?” Luo Zhi was still sitting on the steps, looking up at her, tears pouring down her face as she watched. "Help him, okay?" "Who?" "Can you help him? I know it's selfish, and I also know that you don't want to get in touch with him and your former family members, and you don't want to get involved in the past, otherwise you won't avoid him several times. So I always I haven't asked you in my heart, I think I should respect you, but this time I ask you to forgive me, I know you are his aunt, can you help him?"

Ye Zhanyanfu told her the story of his father fleeing from his schizophrenic mother and cheating female students of the Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Luo Zhi connected it with the past that Zhu Yan himself had told. She guessed that Zhu Yan knew who Sheng Huainan was for a long time, but she never asked to meet each other, so she must have no interest in bringing up the past and having anything to do with her family.She also mentioned it a few times, whether Yuyuantan or Happy Valley, Zhu Yan's refusal has already expressed her attitude, and she knows it well. But now, she has no other choice.

"There was an accident in his family, and now this kind of thing is happening again. It's not that I pity him, but he is indeed too young, and it is difficult to get over it no matter how good he is. I don't want him to know, so I can only come here and tell you secretly , Zhu Yan, don't be angry with me, can you tell me, what should I do?" She cried hoarsely, her voice trembling uncontrollably, trying hard to speak out every word calmly, but she couldn't hide her strong nasal voice and weak crying anyway. She said all the good things and promised not to cause trouble again and again, but she just wanted to know the reason, and the senior who insisted on asking Sheng Huainan to help him cheat reluctantly paid attention to her.

The other party told her her background with a little guilt, and Luo Zhi finally understood Sheng Huainan's difficulties. "My dad could help if he wanted to. At least, mom doesn't have to go in there." "I didn't expect such an accident..." The senior brother said shyly. Zhu Yan listened quietly to Luo Zhi's words, and patted her on the back, as if coaxing a six-year-old child.Luo Zhi cried inconspicuously, and finally calmed down a little, and suddenly felt that her throat was so sore that she couldn't speak. "What a fool." "No, Zhu Yan, you know that," Luo Zhi shook her head, "Most of us in this generation didn't take other paths. We were cautious on the way of growing up, not daring to make a mistake, studying and getting a degree is almost the main path. All the other branches—a good job, a higher degree, a stable life, social status, sense of fulfillment, even marriage—branch off this main road, both about ability and about personal choice. But now, he He has the ability, but he has no chance to choose. What's more, he is burdened with so many things now, but I have no ability to help him, and even, you know, we should be enemies in the first place."

"fool." "Zhu Yan, I'm not asking you to clear up the relationship so that he can get his degree certificate back. I know the possibility of this is very slim, but can you help him through this test? Maybe you have more convenient conditions and can get the degree certificate back. He took him abroad to develop. For example, how about re-applying for school? Or... I don't know." Luo Zhi shook her head painfully. From the very beginning, she was very long-winded and incoherent, and she didn't know what she was talking about. "Although I don't know all of your later experiences, I know it must not be easy. You have encountered very painful setbacks, and you have come to this day step by step. I think your existence will definitely make him understand. This is what I came to Find your most important reason." Luo Zhi tried hard to hold back her tears, wiped her face, and continued in a deep voice. "However, I always believe in him. He is Sheng Huainan. His future will not die here, definitely not." Zhu Yan sat side by side with her on the steps under the flower wall, gently embracing her shoulders, listening to her talking incoherently about the importance of degree certificates, while emphasizing that Sheng Huainan's excellence will never be shackled by this piece of paper On the one hand, he is worried realistically, how hard it is to recover the ruin of years of hard study, and how difficult it will be to move forward in the future. She just said "fool" for a while, coaxing her to calm down. "Actually, I expected that you would figure it out one day. It's really fate. The two girlfriends he made were both related to me." Zhu Yan laughed as she spoke. "I've been thinking, if you talk about relatives in his family, how can you possibly get around to the topic of aunt? How will you face me at that time? But I am willing to make friends with you because I trust you." Luo Zhi didn't know this.Zhu Yan still treats her frankly and never evades, so she naturally cherishes him very much.If it weren't for what happened to Sheng Huainan at the moment, she might have buried this connection in her heart forever. "Actually, I don't have any feelings for my nephew," Zhu Yan continued, "When he was young, he lived in the urban area with my brother, sister-in-law and his grandfather's family. My father and I I still live in the country. I study hard in the high school in the town, and basically rarely play with the children. Knowing that he was only four or five years old when I left home to go to college? I can’t even remember what he looked like when he was a child It's clear, he's a very well-behaved child, very likable." Zhu Yan paused, then turned her head and looked at Luo Zhi with a smile, "By the way, you know best what he looked like when he was five or six years old, and you even fought with him." Luo Zhi laughed through tears. "As for my brother and sister-in-law, that's not to mention. My dad used to be a scholar, and his status is not good. He never caught up with the good times in his life. When he gets old, he can stay in the country and enjoy himself. But my brother is not peaceful. people." "There is too much difference between our two grades, and we don't have a deep relationship. My sister-in-law's family has a very rich background. He also relied on this relationship and his own business, and he has made it to today step by step. After I broke up with them, hehe, I You probably know about it, but I really don’t care about the later development of the couple, and I don’t know how they got to where they are today. Anyway, both of them are cruel and greedy people. strangeness." "Then your father..." "How do you say that sentence? The ten fingers are still uneven. After all, my father is still more worried about my brother. After my life got better, I once had contact with him, but he told me Brother, he said that he must recognize me, and was persuaded by my brother, oh, I remember my brother called the phone number I left for my father, and told me that a man should know shame." Luo Zhi froze for a moment, then squeezed Zhu Yan's hand with some anxiety. "What a little girl." She pinched Luo Zhi's ears in turn, "For so many years, I've traveled to so many places, I've met so many people, the things of that year have long faded away, I just talked about it, I don't feel uncomfortable. " "I will still remit money to my old father as usual. It's my duty as a child. Unfortunately, I didn't attend his funeral. Hearing what you say now, I probably know it. I must be in a hurry, because of my brother's affairs. .” Zhu Yan sighed, and suddenly asked her, "Excuse me, can I have a cigarette?" Luo Zhi opened her mouth in surprise: "Why do you all smoke? I recently discovered that so many people who I thought were non-smokers..." "Relieve thousands of worries, you also try?" Zhu Yan carried an aura that Luo Zhi thought she could never possess in this lifetime.She lowered her head and lit a cigarette freely, and when she held the fire with her hands in the wind, the warm orange fire light illuminated her face, and a lock of broken hair hung down, swaying with the breeze. "However," she exhaled slowly, "I feel sorry for Sheng Huainan at most when I hear you say this. It's not that I hold grudges, but I really don't have any feelings. I heard that I probably don't even hear that his family is down. The shocking feeling of being out of time. The thing that made me saddest back then was not the liar, nor the inhumanity of the world, but the fact that I finally understood the kinship of flesh and blood, and to put it bluntly, that was all." Luo Zhi knew what she was referring to, and when she heard these words, she felt something in her heart and sighed along with her. "Actually, now that I think about it, the relationship between my brother and sister-in-law is so tense, and they are kind in front of others, but they can smash the house to pieces behind their backs. How did this kid grow up with a knife?" Luo Zhi sniffed: "Didn't you feel emotionally before. At that time, I didn't know what your original intention was." "I asked you last time, and you said that you haven't told your mother about you and Sheng Huainan." "I'm afraid she'll collapse." Luo Zhi said concisely, shrugging at Zhu Yan. "But you still like him." "Yes. You are also that person's sister, and I like you very much. I don't know if others will think that I am rebellious and wolf-hearted, but that's what I am. Some mentality that beats people to death because of blood relationship, It doesn't exist in my place. You are yourself, Sheng Huainan is Sheng Huainan, it wasn't you who did the evil back then, and the evildoer himself was punished, although it was a bit late, it's better than never." Luo Zhi stood up, smiled at Zhu Yan, she was completely different from the girl who broke down and cried just now, and said firmly: "I have always thought clearly. You have discovered it a long time ago, and you can see it more clearly than me. ,Right?" "Okay, let's not mention Chen Guzi's rotten sesame seeds, what's the point of talking about it," Zhu Yan blinked, "Let's go, I'll take you to eat, you're going to starve to death." "That……" "I promise you," Zhu Yan said solemnly, "I will do my best to help him." Luo Zhi smiled happily, but the tears were drying on her face just now, and she couldn't smile at all. "But Luo Zhi," Zhu Yan added, "You have to know that life is much more complicated than in school. I'm not sure that Sheng Huainan thinks the same as you do. If he messes up, he might even Blame your mother for writing the report and for helping his father go to jail. Even if you don’t know all this, it may be difficult to face you.” Luo Zhi lowered her head and thought for a while: "No, based on what I know about Sheng Huainan, he wouldn't turn around and blame the victim as you said." "So sure?" "right." Luo Zhi's back was facing the direction of the wind, her long hair seemed to be carried all the way to the long past by the evening wind. "I like this guy, probably for many reasons, he's good-looking, he plays great, he gets good grades, he's liked by everyone, he's well-educated, he's nice, he's actually a little cold, maybe even more so. Charm...but that's not the most important thing." "Then what is the most important thing?" "I don't know," Luo Zhi smiled, "Or, it's hard for me to describe clearly. But because of the most important part, I can be 100% sure that he won't be the kind of person you said." Zhu Yan's face was a little moved. "Then if it's the second type, because of guilt, shame, or other reasons, I don't want to see you again?" "I hope not, but that's his choice, and I can only be sure of my own choice. And, hopefully, his choice can be touched and changed by other things, for example, feelings." "But if I really help him go to the overseas district to study again, you have to know that time, circumstances, and all other uncontrollable factors will make you never have a chance to be together. You young people have faith because you don't know How scary the outside is, and how small I am. I helped him, and you may really be over." "It's okay." Luo Zhi's answer was very straightforward. The answer to this question was already written when they were glued together.Luo Zhi also answered Sheng Huainan straightforwardly. Compared with all of you betraying relatives and living together with me, I hope that you will be blessed with everything you need, and be loved by the whole world, even if you forget each other in the rivers and lakes.