The joyful moments always feel few and far between, and it always runs fast with time without you feeling it.
I left all my worries behind and enjoyed the joy, the joy of being with Guo Xuefu.
Before I knew it, the school bell had rung and I walked towards Guo Xuefu who was packing up her things, knocked on her desk and went ahead to walk outside the cla*sroom.
I held on to the railing outside the cla*sroom and quietly enjoyed the blowing of the evening wind and the enchanting clouds.
When some time pa*sed, I heard a small sound from behind me, so, inexplicably, I gave a laugh: “Why not, wasn’t it quite bold today? Why are you being a bit of a thief now?”
“You’re the one being a thief, it’s just that I just came out.” Guo Xuefu was a bit stiff-tongued.
I turned around and stared at Guo Xuefu’s face, not really having any words.
“Hmph, you’re still looking, you’re still looking, I’ll ignore you if you’re looking.” Guo Xuefu slowly blushed, towards a ripe hairy crab, beautiful to behold.
I went up to her, grabbed her hand and put it in mine. I gently gazed into Guo Xuefu’s eyes, wanting so much to look at her like this for the rest of my life, to gaze at her until the end of time.
“Let’s go, the gate should be closed if we don’t leave.” Guo Xuefu seemed to be a bit overwhelmed by the atmosphere and whispered a prayer to me.
“So as not to embarra*s her, I obediently responded.
We walked back to Guo Xuefu’s house, our hands entwined in each other’s, experiencing each other’s hearts and feeling very content.
It was at this heartwarming moment that my mobile phone rang. I somewhat didn’t want to answer the call, so I hung up the phone without even looking. Within a few seconds, the phone rang again.
“Answer it, there’s a chance it’s someone looking for you. Don’t have an emergency and not be able to find you.” Guo Xuefu kept thinking when she heard a call and suggested I look at it. I sighed and gave her a helpless look, feeling that I had really had a bad year lately. It was so easy to warm up with Guo Xuefu, so easy to have such a cozy scene, but I didn’t think that someone would come to disturb us three times.
I shook my head and took out my mobile phone and put it to my ear. “If there’s nothing important, please cut the small talk, I’m still a bit busy right now.” A little annoyed at the call, I shouted to the phone in a somewhat rushed tone.
“Where are you now? Get over here right now.” At that moment, I heard a very angry voice, and I had a bad feeling in my heart, and when I looked at the phone it was actually Uncle Chen’s.
“What’s wrong, Uncle Chen, did something happen?” When I heard Uncle Chen’s voice, I inexplicably thought of the scene that night after I was taken out of 1908, when Uncle Chen called Sister Ting after he knew that what happened to me was related to Sister Ting.
“What did you say about what happened? Come back to me immediately.” Uncle Chen raised his voice again, like a volcano trying to suppress his anger and then explode, with a hint of indefinable sadness mixed in.
“Okay, uncle, I’ll go back now, don’t be angry, I’ll go back now, don’t be angry.” Hearing my reply back, Uncle Chen said nothing and hung up the phone with a snap.
“What’s wrong? Why is Uncle Chen so furious?” Guo Xuefu was beside me when she heard Uncle Chen fuming and looked at me as I put the phone down and asked me impatiently. “Did you go and do something again? You didn’t go and fight again without telling me, did you.” Guo Xuefu looked at me angrily like a hedgehog that had been stepped on.
“No, Xuefu, I didn’t go and do anything like that, you have to believe me, I didn’t do those things, neither did I fight nor did I go and bully anyone, and I didn’t figure out why Uncle Chen was so angry.” I wasn’t sure if Uncle Chen knew about what I had done to Miss Lin, so I was a bit uncertain.
“I’ll go with you, just so I can see Uncle Chen and hear what you’ve done, and if you dare to lie to me, see how I’ll fix you.” After Guo Xuefu said that, without waiting for me to reply, she walked ahead and diverted her path towards Uncle Chen’s house.
I walked behind Guo Xuefu and watched Guo Xuefu’s back, my mouth all bitter. I could only pray now that it wasn’t about Mr. Lin, otherwise I really didn’t know how I would face it.
The road has an end, and even if I walk as slowly as I can, I can’t beat the end. I shivered and opened the door under the watchful eye of Guo Xue-fu.
When I opened the door, my head felt as if I had been struck with a dull blow, and I stared blankly into the room. I saw a haggard-looking Mr. Lin, a sad-faced Uncle Chen, a furious Zheng Hua and two men in police outfits.
……
I sat in prison and thought about that three-chamber trial. I had never thought that I had really turned out to be a pawn, not thinking that Zheng Hua and Uncle Chen had actually been good friends before.
That day, it was during Uncle Chen’s words that I learned the real truth, the whole truth; my father was one of the biggest bosses in the city before he was imprisoned, and Zheng Hua was a policeman who was then broken into my father’s group, only to later fail to withstand the temptation to hold on to the bottom line in his heart.
As Uncle Chen’s best friend, Uncle Chen had advised him and cautioned him, but Zheng Hua did not listen to his heart at that time, while Ms. Lin’s father, who had no way to repay the money he owed at that time, met Zheng Hua by chance and sent Ms. Lin to Zheng Hua’s bed, hurting her deeply from then on.
My father was sent to prison by Uncle Chen himself due to the fact that he had been sent to jail, and so was Zheng Hua. The key evidence Uncle Chen got at the time was from the person behind 1908, namely Xu Ying’s boss, Sister Ah Jia.
When I heard the news, I couldn’t believe it. It turned out that all I had sent to do was that the people of 1908 were retaliating against Uncle Chen for not giving them what they wanted afterwards, and only when they knew that Zheng Hua was going to be released did they set up the affair with me and Ms Lin again.
When I was taken away, I couldn’t forget Uncle Chen’s sad eyes that were already full of white hair, or Guo Xue-fu’s swollen eyes that were crying. I was sentenced to one year in prison, which was still the result of Uncle Chen’s plea for mercy while Teacher Lin forgave my ignorance.
The years went by, I was in prison quietly thinking about my actions, my life, trying hard to accept the reform, to change the habits in myself, to change myself, just when I was in prison for half a year, I heard them say that 1908 was ended by the police from top to bottom, that day, I laughed and cried.
When I went out, looking at the sunshine, at Uncle Chen standing outside the prison and at Guo Xue-fu standing outside, I shed tears.
More than that, I couldn’t help but sigh, time has pa*sed ……
