until the last minute

The school doctor took a preliminary look at the injury and found that there was no serious problem. He went to the hospital for further examination just in case.

Zhou Yin was drowsy in the back seat of the car, holding the phone in his hand, not daring to fall asleep, and glanced at the screen every once in a while.He saw the WeChat message sent by Li Qing immediately, and the light from the screen reflected his face, the expression on his indifferent face was almost restrained, except for the slightly pursed corners of his mouth.

Li Qing said to help him put away his luggage and bring it to him when he returned to school.

Zhou Yin replied thank you, then turned off the phone screen, closed his eyes and leaned against the back of the chair to fall asleep.

The girl next to her opened a bag of potato chips, chewing loudly.Zhou Yin lifted his eyelids, and the girl handed over the potato chips, smiling crescent-shaped eyes: "Do you want to eat? You haven't eaten dinner, have you?"

Zhou Yin has always been insensitive to puffed food, he raised his hand and refused, the girl said oh, and said: "Li Qing gave it to me. Before I got in the car, I asked who had food, and he stuffed it for me."

"Are you familiar with Li Qing? It's been half a month since he transferred to our class." The girl turned her head to look at Zhou Yin, her eyes were round and bright, shining with probing light.Zhou Yin denied it without even thinking about it: "I'm not familiar with you, I met you this afternoon."

The girl brushed off the potato chips on her knees, and said casually, "Well, I saw him carrying you out, but I didn't expect him to be so strong."

Zhou Yin joked, "I'm not heavy either."

The girl returned to her smiling face, and handed the potato chips to Zhou Yin again, "Eat it, eat it."

Zhou Yin couldn't resist the girl's enthusiasm, so he picked up a piece and ate it. The over-standard salty taste hit the taste buds, making his mouth dry and tongue dry.He wanted to find a bottle of mineral water, but the girl suddenly seemed to have discovered a new world, and pointed to the printed words on the potato chip packaging bag to show him, "Hey, look!"

Lay's Potato Chips are only one word different from the well-known Lay's Potato Chips, but the outer packaging of the product is imitated to the extreme.

The girl couldn't help laughing: "Pfft, did Li Qing buy a fake product?"

Zhou Yin followed suit with a smile, he unlocked the phone screen, and looked down at the WeChat interface.In addition to the class group and grade group that keep getting new news, the third one is Li Qing's profile picture, and the chat content still stays at his reply thank you.

When they were about to arrive at the hospital, the accompanying school doctor reminded them to notify their parents to pick them up.Zhou Yin sent a WeChat message to his mother, asking her to go to bed early, without mentioning anything about coming to the hospital.

As the night grew thicker, Zhou Yin turned his head to look at the shadows of trees outside the car window, and the screen of his phone lit up before he noticed it.

The X-ray was taken in the hospital, and Zhou Yin felt thirsty while waiting for the result.He ate up the bag of potato chips in the end, the girl ate a little and didn't eat any more, Zhou Yin asked her if she wanted to come over, and she ate it all without any hesitation.

Zhou Yin didn't take a sip of mineral water until he got off the car, his mouth was salty and astringent.He poked his finger that was stained with potato chip residue into his mouth and sucked it, then stuck out his tongue and licked his salty lips. The saliva secreted in his mouth was supposed to quench his thirst.

The film showed that no bone was injured, only soft tissue injury. Zhou Yin took the medicine, greeted the girl who came with him, and prepared to go home.The girl's name is Ruan Wei. Zhou Yin has heard this name many times. At first, he thought it was Wei with cursive initials. Only after reading her medical records did he realize that it was another word.

Ruan Wei was waiting for her family to come to pick her up, she looked Zhou Yin from head to toe, and said with a smile: "Can you still go, I thought you couldn't go just now."

"It doesn't hurt that much when you recover, it hurts more when you just fell." Zhou Yin replied truthfully, and didn't know whether Ruan Wei believed him or not.In any case, it is a fact that he fell off the bed. As for whether he can walk or whether he needs someone to carry it, he can testify freely.

Ruan Wei took out her mobile phone and asked if she wanted to add a WeChat account. Zhou Yin opened WeChat and was about to click on the QR code business card when a new message prompt box popped up at the top of the screen.Li Qing's name flashed by, and he quickly crossed it away.

Zhou Yin took out the QR code business card and asked Ruan Wei to scan the code.He didn't look at Ruan Wei, but glanced down at the shiny phone case studded with rhinestones and the delicate manicure.

Zhou Yin glanced at Ruan Wei's fingernails, and asked, "Is this allowed by the school?"

"Of course not. This is a nail sticker. I'm going to tear it off when I get back." Ruan Wei's tone was slightly sad, and her brows were furrowed seriously.

"It's pretty." Zhou Yin praised casually, and when he left, he passed by Ruan's mother who rushed over in a hurry.Zhou Yin nodded slightly, and walked towards the hospital gate.

The smile on Ruan Wei's mouth gradually faded after Zhou Yin left.

Ruan's mother made a fuss about her daughter's injury first, and then she noticed that she was looking at the back of the person who had just left for a long time.

"That's the one you're looking for?" Mother Ruan teased.

"No, mom, don't talk nonsense," Ruan Wei looked away, and took her mother's arm, with an unfathomable expression, "The man you passed by just now doesn't like women."

"What do you mean you don't like women?"

"It is said that he likes men, and I also heard from my classmates."

Zhou Yin was naturally unaware of the discussion about him.He called a taxi, and while waiting for the taxi, he clicked on the chat dialog box with Li Qing. Li Qing sent two more WeChat messages, one asking him to inform him of the test results, and the other asking him what the doctor said.

Zhou Yin replied, thank you for your concern, there is no problem after the inspection.

When I got home, my mother had already fallen asleep, and the huge room was still brightly lit, and none of the lights were turned off.Zhou Yin hesitated for a long time at the door of the bedroom, and finally pushed the door open to see his mother.

The bedside lamp has been on for several years, and the mother covers her eyes with her arms, and the slight snoring sound shows that she has fallen into a deep sleep.

The ashtray under the light was polished and neatly stacked on the bedside table together with the cigarette case and lighter.

My mother never smokes, but these are kept at home all year round.Zhou Yin once secretly hid the ashtray and threw the cigarette lighter into the trash can. After a few days, her mother bought a new one and put it in the original place, exactly.

Zhou Yin felt terrified, he continued to throw away, and his mother continued to buy.Rebellious, he also turned off the lights left every night.It was never for him who came home late that his mother did not turn off the lights, because even if he came back early or was at home all the time, his mother would still leave the lights on in one room before going to bed at night.

It was like waiting for someone who hadn't returned, but there were only the two of them in their house.

This silent wrestling came to an abrupt end one night.That night, Zhou Yin heard the rumbling thunder in his sleep. He couldn't sleep well. He suspected that the windows were not closed, and that water flooded in and flooded the whole house.Another thunder fell, and he was awakened by the nightmare, so he got up to close the window.

The windows were tightly closed, and he pushed open the door, and it was pitch black upstairs and downstairs.He was the one who turned off the lights before going to bed, which means that his mother didn't wake up and turn on the lights while he was asleep.

Zhou Yin was a little relieved, he went downstairs in the dark to pour water in the kitchen, and within a few steps, the sudden lightning illuminated most of the room.Accompanied by the thunder that resounded through the sky and the earth, the glass in Zhou Yin's hand fell to the ground with a bang, and he saw his mother sitting on the sofa, her already pale face was especially pale in the dark night.

Slowly approaching her mother, it was only when she got close that she saw the tears on her face.

His mother choked up and said to him, the lights are not on, the room is too dark, your father will be angry when he comes back.

At that moment, Zhou Yin couldn't say anything, the soreness stuck in his throat, he regretted it very much, and felt that he had done something wrong for the first time.

Zhou Yin's heart sank when he recalled the past, he tucked up the quilt for his mother, and walked out of the bedroom lightly.

After a day of tossing around, after taking a shower and lying on the bed, Zhou Yin realized that he forgot to apply the medicine.The location of the pain was still aching, and he ignored the pain by letting himself fall asleep quickly.

After falling asleep, he had many messy dreams. After a while, he dreamed that his mother told him that his father was coming. He waited from early morning to sunset, but still did not see the strange father.After a while, he dreamed back to his childhood, and it seemed that there was indeed such a tall figure holding his hand, and the smile of his mother beside him was gentle and moving.

Waking up in the morning feeling lost, Zhou Yin thought about it for a long time, and found that he rarely saw his mother smiling.

The students who went on a trip will return to school tonight, and he will have an extra day of free time if he comes back early.Zhou Yin decided to use this day to go to the neighboring city to look at houses. He wanted to move house in a day or two, but his mother always disagreed.

Before going out, Zhou Yin consulted his mother again. Although he had expected it, he couldn't help but feel frustrated when he got a negative answer again.

Zhou Yin arrived at 10:30 when he made an appointment with the real estate agency at [-]:[-], and within a few minutes someone took him to see the house.He was on his way to see the second house when he received the call from Li Qing. The agent led him into a narrow alley, and he wanted to stop him. This was a far cry from his request for renting a house.

Li Qing's phone call happened by chance, Zhou Yin picked up the phone, and just said "Hello", there was a bad signal or other reasons, the rustling sound lasted for more than ten seconds.

After hanging up the phone, the agent had already walked downstairs. Without using the key, he directly opened the downstairs door with a brute force.The agent smiled politely at him, walked a few steps to the elevator, pressed the button and blocked the elevator door with his hands, Zhou Yin had no choice but to enter the elevator.

The intermediary presses the button on the top floor. The severely worn floor button and the flashing indicator light indicate that the elevator is in disrepair. Zhou Yin is distracted to look at the inspection table on the wall. name.

"Hi, I'm Li Qing."

"I know, what do you want from me?"

Li Qing asked how his injury was, and there was a murmur on the other end of the phone, and soon nothing could be heard.Zhou Yin sighed, hung up the phone and sent a message to Li Qing.

"I'm outside, the signal is not very good, what can I do?"

Li Qing replied quickly: "We will go back in the afternoon, where is your home, I will send your backpack there?"

While pressing his cell phone, Zhou Yin glanced at the floor indicator lights. The elevator was going up very slowly, and it took several minutes to reach the fifth floor.He wanted to complain a few words, but suddenly found that the intermediary, who had been extremely enthusiastic all the way, hadn't spoken a word since entering the elevator.

The elevator fell into an eerie silence, and the intermediary was standing in the corner on the left front, his hands hanging down, motionless.Zhou Yin noticed something strange from his stiff waist.The screen stayed on the chat page between him and Li Qing. He deleted what he had entered, and quickly typed text in the edit box while holding his breath.

"I was looking at the house outside, and the agent who took me to see the house was a little strange, I can't tell."

The elevator went up to the eighth floor, and the elevator door opened once, and the aunt came in with a bucket of quilts, without pressing any floors.Zhou Yin expected that the other party would also go to the same floor, so he was slightly relieved. When a new message came in from the phone, Li Qing asked where the other party was.

Zhou Yin sent the address, and he added, maybe I was thinking too much.

Li Qing's reply became shorter and shorter, messages popped up one after another, are you alone?Leave immediately, find an excuse, get out of the elevator, and I'll call the police for you?

Zhou Yin said no, but Li Qing insisted, telling him to run if he felt something was wrong.

While hesitating, the aunt struck up a conversation and said, "You look at the face, are you looking for someone?"

"I came to see the house." Zhou Yin answered first, and then his aunt's words made his hairs stand on end, "What house are you looking at? I haven't heard that anyone here is going to sell a house."

"It's a rented house."

"Rent a house? What do you do when you rent a house on the 20th floor? That's the rooftop."

"I pressed the wrong button."

The intermediary said the first sentence after entering the elevator, and after pressing the button for the 19th floor, he looked back at Zhou Yin.That gloomy look was unspeakable, completely different from the flattering look before entering the elevator.

Auntie was still muttering: "I know the 19th floor, but I didn't hear that it would be rented out."

Unspeakable fear rushed over his head and face, Zhou Yin felt terrified, and the rapid phone ringing filled the entire elevator. While the elevator was on the [-]th floor, he stepped forward and pressed the [-]th floor. As soon as the elevator door opened, he pretended to answer the phone escaped.

Zhou Yin found the escape route and ran downstairs desperately.

Li Qing's worried voice came from the phone, Zhou Yin pursed his lips and did not speak, until he escaped from the dilapidated building, he gasped violently, and the boulder hanging in his heart finally fell to the ground.

After a long time, Zhou Yin thought that he escaped from birth that day.

--------------------

will be explained in the next chapter