Uncle Nine, where are you running to?

"When is it scheduled?"

She thought for a while, then carefully put down her pen, slowly writing the letter while asking questions to the person opposite her.

Erdi held up her face and looked through the several pieces of wasted letter paper beside her. She would rewrite if she made a mistake in writing a word, and would also rewrite if ink spilled on it. He thought to himself that she really cared about the people in the troupe.

"It will be..."

Suddenly his eyes fixed on a piece of waste paper behind several sheets of letter paper. It was her masterpiece.

A few turtles were drawn crookedly in the center. The character "二" was okay, but the characters "娣" in "二娣" (Er Di) had already spread out and turned into a few ink dots on the lower left side.

He didn't look carefully last time, but this time he found that his name was circled, and then a horizontal ink line was drawn across it. At the other end of the ink line, there was also a circle with a few small words "wind" written in the circle.

Erdi's face gradually darkened. He counted for some unknown reason and found that there were two more wind characters than Erdi.

wind?

Who is it and what does it have to do with him?

Why should I be connected with him?

In a flash, he suddenly remembered the words "A Feng" she murmured when they first met.

Erdi was stunned. His fingertips pinched the piece of waste paper harder and harder, and even wrinkles were formed on the edge of the paper next to his fingertips.

For some reason, he suddenly remembered the familiarity in her eyes when he first met her.

He originally thought that she felt he looked familiar because she had seen his play before, but now...

Looking at the wrinkled word "wind" on his fingertips, he thought that he would rather not have that touch of familiarity.

……

"Why don't you speak?"

Jingzhi raised the brush in her hand and looked at him in confusion, only to find that his sparse eyebrows were wrinkled so much that two small lumps of flesh appeared, and his face was frighteningly dark.

Her heart skipped a beat, but she felt a little confused:

"What, what's wrong?"

She silently placed the brush in her hand on the pen holder beside her and stretched out her right hand to reach the clenched fist of the left hand opposite her.

Just as he was about to touch it, he immediately withdrew his left hand and put it under the table.

She bit her lower lip lightly, suddenly feeling a little aggrieved, so she asked again:

"What happened?"

Erdi looked up at her, and Jingzhi only then noticed the emotions in his eyes.

Anger, disbelief, suspicion, and a hint of betrayal.

Her fingertips trembled, and for some unknown reason, she retracted her outstretched right hand.

Again.

What the hell is wrong with him?

Erdi glanced at her and suppressed the strong jealousy and sense of betrayal that was rapidly welling up in her heart.

He loosened his fingertips and the letter fell to the ground. After a few seconds, he rotated the paper with trembling fingertips and pushed it in front of Jingzhi.

He bit his teeth lightly before slowly opening his lips and asking her:

"Feng...who is it?"

As if it was difficult to start, he spoke very slowly, but his eyes were fixed on her face, wanting to see her reaction, but also afraid that the reaction she was about to show was something he didn't want to see.

really.

When she saw the piece of waste paper, her pupils trembled for a moment, her face suddenly turned pale, and she opened her mouth but did not explain to him immediately.

Erdi quickly closed her eyes, not daring to look anymore, but her fists on her knees were tightly gripping her trouser legs.

He took a few deep breaths, but found that he could not calm his rapid breathing, let alone the anger that kept rising up.

I simply asked all the questions in my mind:

"Why are my name and his linked together? We... look alike, don't we? Why are there only that many of those turtles?"

He opened his mouth again and struggled to ask the question he was most afraid of:

"Am I...his substitute?"

Before he finished speaking, he lowered his head in a hurry.

He was afraid that if he saw even a hint of certainty on her face, he thought, it would break his heart.

"Do you really need to know?"

She looked at the darkening sky outside the window, her tone a little vague.

She suddenly had a premonition that if she said it outright, this marriage... might not happen.

Erdi seemed to have made up her mind. She suddenly raised her head and stared into her eyes. After a few seconds, she nodded heavily.

Jingzhi let out a long breath through his nose.

She wanted to forget it, she had kept the secret in her heart for a long time, so it would be okay to tell him.

So I straightened my back, met his eyes, and said seriously:

"You are not his substitute, you are..."

"You are……"

As if she had been ordered to stop speaking, the word "he" circled around her tongue several times, but she couldn't say it out loud.

Jingzhi was a little panicked. She covered her mouth and looked at the sky outside again for some unknown reason.

I thought to myself, what’s going on? Why can’t I say it?

Seeing a glimmer of hope in the eyes of the person opposite her, she gritted her teeth and decided to change her words.

"he is the one……"

You can't pronounce the word.

"You are……"

"The same person" came to his lips again.

……

Jingzhi scratched her head and said many times, but each time she could only finish half of the words. Looking at the gradually fading light in the eyes of the person opposite her, her heart sank completely.

She was silent for a long time, then sighed and said to him:

"I can't tell you. I didn't mean to lie to you, but I promise that the one I love has always been you, only you, Erdi."

Erdi's heart was almost broken into two at this moment. He felt that even breathing made his heart ache. How could he have the mind to care about getting married?

He moved his butt, turned his face toward the window, and said lightly:

"Go out and leave me alone."

"...Erdi, don't you believe me?"

Jingzhi immediately got out of bed, walked behind him and wanted to hug him. He seemed to know what she was going to do, and moved his butt forward again, wishing he could get out of the half-open window.

She suddenly lowered her hand that was raised in the air.

"We're getting married soon, are you still hiding it from me? Is there anything you can't say?...get out."

"..."

Jingzhi clutched the sides of her skirt tightly with both hands, gritted her teeth, held her breath, trying to hold back the tears, but the tears couldn't help but slide down from the corners of her eyes in an instant.

She couldn't hold it back and finally choked out a sob. As if she was afraid of losing face in front of him, she quickly covered her mouth and ran out.

The messy footsteps behind me were getting farther and farther away, but outside the window I could see her rushing out of the yard and running away into the distance.

Erdi stared at the white dot that was getting smaller and smaller, not daring to blink. He opened his five fingers and held his thighs tightly, luckily he didn't rush out to find her.

After a long while, his eyelids finally drooped slightly, and a drop of scalding liquid suddenly fell on his knees that he was holding in his arms.

Erdi looked down.

He cried?

He looked at the small dark mark for a long time, until it was almost half dry, then he chuckled.

She's just a stand-in, what right do I have to cry for her...

"Di, Di, how did Jingzhi... run away—?"

"Bang!"

Liang Zan shrank his head and was almost hit by the paperweight thrown at him.

Looking at the cracked paperweight on the ground, he suddenly felt a sense of foreboding.

He just saw Jingzhi... running out crying.

He gritted his teeth and advised:

"If you have anything to say, please talk to her. She——"

"Bang!"

The inkstone shattered to the ground, and the ink that hadn't yet dried splashed onto Liang Zan's trouser leg. Just as he was about to lose his temper, he suddenly heard Erdi's furious roar:

"Get out!"

Liang Zan stared intently at the stubborn figure with a straight spine, gritted his teeth and whispered:

"Don't regret it!"

After saying that, he didn't care about the ink spots on his trouser legs, and ran out of the house, running all the way in the direction Jingzhi had just left.

The room was silent, and Erdi's rapid breathing could be vaguely heard.

After a long time, the sound gradually subsided, but suddenly a choking sound appeared, which was a bit muffled.

In his room, Erdi seemed to be extremely afraid of the cold. She wrapped herself tightly in the wedding quilt, her eyes were red and swollen, and she looked at the dark clouds outside the window that were moving faster and faster.

Suddenly, a gust of wind carrying moisture blew towards the front, and the few pieces of letter paper without the paperweight on the small table were blown all over the floor. The same happened to the waste paper, but it was blown farther and reached the door of the room. It drifted twice and happened to fall on the broken inkstone.

The remaining ink began to spread slowly from one corner upwards, first the word "wind", then Erdi's name, and gradually, everything turned into pitch black.

A few drops of cold water suddenly hit Erdi's face. He stretched out his fingers from under the quilt, picked up a few water drops and looked at them carefully, then looked at the sky outside.

The first rain of autumn finally arrived.

She didn't bring an umbrella...