SFS Chapter 158 The Photo
Chapter 158 The Photo
This was a summer vacation before my second year of high school.
The summer vacation that year wasn't too hot; the sun wasn't too strong, and the temperature was just right.
Yan Ruo's aunt had already called ahead and booked a flight to Beijing for her, a month before her second year of high school.
Da Piao Liang is already one year old. It has grown very quickly. Its round and chubby appearance reaches just up to Shen Xi's calves when it stands up.
For a whole month, Yan Ruo kept pestering Jiang Ci, wanting to go out with him and take a picture as a memento. This Yan Ruo was already quite different from the Yan Ruo of before.
As for why he didn't pester Shen Xi, it's because Shen Xi had already taken a photo with him.
"Jiang, we've known each other for a year now, you can't be so disgusted with me. It's just one photo, one is enough."
Yan Ru followed Jiang Ci pitifully, holding up one finger and repeatedly promising that she would only take one picture and wouldn't be greedy.
Jiang Ci sat on the sofa and glanced at him sideways. Annoying guy.
He was unusually childish, deliberately refusing to agree. This annoying guy who always liked to stay at their house and freeload was now trying to take a photo with them.
Should we revisit his victory?
Shen Xi touched the pink bow tied on Da Liangpiao's ear, trying to minimize her presence. She never got involved in their affairs, otherwise, one of them would always complain that she was taking sides.
Seeing that she wouldn't get a group photo, Yan Ruo became even more upset. She slowly shuffled her toes, when suddenly an idea struck her. "How about... the three of us take a group photo together? How about we include my sister?"
"Who is your sister?"
Jiang Ci frowned and looked at him unhappily.
Is she your sister? Don't you dare call her that!
Yan Ru blinked innocently. Shen Xi was only three years older than them, because she started school late.
How could it not be his sister?
However, Yan Ruo, who had always been a bit dim-witted and lacking in common sense, finally became more sensible today and knew that she couldn't anger Jiang Ci at this time.
"Don't call me 'sister,' how about we take a picture together? The three of us don't have any photos together, and if we leave now, it'll be hard to see you again..."
He was still muttering to himself persistently.
Shen Xi was quite happy to take a photo of the three of them, but she also considered that Jiang Ci didn't like taking pictures, and usually he would only point his camera at her and not at himself.
She wouldn't force Jiang Ci.
"Jiang Ci doesn't like it..."
"I'll take the picture."
Two voices rang out at the same time.
Ignoring Shen Xi's curious gaze, Jiang Ci nonchalantly turned his eyes away.
He thought about it carefully and realized that over the years, he had very few photos of him and her together.
They are not people who like taking pictures. Except when they were in Beijing, when a professional photographer came to their home to take a family photo, they almost never have any photos together.
Jiang Ci thought for a moment; he wanted a group photo.
After discussing their plans, they returned to campus together. The campus security guards were still at the gate, and they started blocking them before they could even see who they were. Only when Jiang Ci and Yan Ruo showed their faces did the guards allow them to enter.
Yan Ruo is a boy with artistic talent; he was able to find a nice-looking school background wall in a short period of time.
The wall was already somewhat mottled, with plaster falling off. The corner looked like a patch of foundation dust. It was here that they took their first and last group photo.
For many years afterward, they didn't have such a photo.
Yan Ruo in the middle still has his bowl cut hair. He opens his eyes shyly. Jiang Ci puts his hands on his thighs and looks lazily at the camera. Shen Xi stands to Yan Ruo's left and makes a peace sign with the back of his hand.
Sunlight streamed down, like golden dust spilled from a fairy's hand, spreading across the cement floor. A red banner hung on the mottled wall, its surface tinged with the vibrant colors of youth, rendered in black and blue. It was filled with messages like "Good luck on the college entrance exam!", "I want to go to university!", and "I want to be with so-and-so!"
The air is thick with youthful energy.
"I'm leaving soon, and you'll all be going back to the capital, right?" Yan Ruo hugged the camera tightly to his chest after taking the photos, his lips turned down, still unable to suppress his sadness.
Shen Xi reached out and patted his shoulder, comforting him with a smile, "You'll go back for university, most universities are there, and we'll go back too. We'll part ways eventually, so we won't say goodbye."
Because we will meet again.
The day before Yan Ruo left, her eyes were red and swollen. She held Da Piao Liang in her left arm and a photo frame in her right hand, which contained a group photo of three young people.
As soon as Da Piao Liang landed, it hopped and skipped to Jiang Ci's side, quickly raising its two front paws.
Jiang Man glanced at him casually, and he immediately sat down obediently, sticking his tongue out at him, while his tail wagged more and more happily.
"This ungrateful little guy, I've been feeding and holding him every day for the past few days, and now the first thing he does when he walks in is Jiang Ci."
Shen Xi was so angry at this ungrateful brat that she almost fell over backwards.
Jiang Ci tilted his head and glanced at Shen Xi, then turned his head back as if nothing had happened.
"I'm leaving tomorrow. I booked a flight for the morning, so you don't need to come to see me off."
Yan Ru pouted, and unhappily placed the blue photo frame on the bar, muttering to herself.
"You must never forget me, especially Shen Xi. I even knocked you down and sent you to the hospital. You can't forget that grudge. Jiang... classmate, you can't forget me either. After all, we spent some time together. You are one of my only two friends."
He hung his head dejectedly. "I'll put this photo frame here. From now on, whenever you see this frame, you must remember me."
Shen Xi picked up the photo frame and saw that the printed photo was exactly the same as the original. She raised her eyes blankly and looked at Yan Ruo's mouth opening and closing as she said something, but she couldn't hear a word.
A sharp, ringing sound pierced her entire head, and she closed her eyes in pain.
Jiang Ci was the first to realize something was wrong, and he hurriedly reached out to hug the swaying little girl.
"Shut up, don't say anything."
After yelling, he quickly picked her up, carried her to the bed, gently placed her down, and then turned around to call the family doctor.
"No...no...I'm fine."
Shen Xi weakly opened her eyes and laboriously raised her hand to grab his wrist.
Jiang Ci blinked, the panic on his face faded, and his face turned deathly pale.
"Let's call a doctor to take a look, you..."
"Low blood sugar, even if the doctor comes to see you, it won't help. Just eat something sweet."
Shen Xi shook her head and refused him.
Da Piao Liang curled up with its tail against the corner of Shen Xi's bedside, staring longingly at its godmother, as if it knew that the human was sick and remained silent.
Yan Ruo followed Jiang Ci into the room. His eyes were still red, and he was filled with mixed emotions. He had just been sadly reminiscing about his friend's feelings, but now Shen Xi had collapsed.
He was a little confused. "Is your body... a little too fragile?"
Instantly, the room fell silent.
Jiang Ci looked at him as if he were a dead man, and Shen Xi also raised her eyes and glared at him.
That annoying guy, speaking such blunt truths.
In this suffocating environment, Yan Ruo struggled to speak, his dying words echoing...
"Oh no, you've misunderstood me. What I meant was that when those people beat me up, I was so tough that I never passed out no matter how badly I was beaten... I'm actually a little envious of you."
What a hellish joke! What kind of damned envy is this?!
Isn't that just implying I'm weak?
Shen Xi rolled her eyes in exasperation. That damn straight man.
"I know you mean well, but please don't get better yet."
Shen Xi quickly stopped him from continuing.
The image of that photo still flashed through her mind. Years later, the photo in the frame ended up in Jiang Ci's photo album, but the people in the photos in that album no longer remembered each other.
Everyone would sigh and say, "Fate is so cruel."
Yan Ruo was eventually driven away by Jiang Ci's tantrum. Whenever Shen Xi fell ill, Jiang Ci's usual good mood and patience would turn to zero. He suppressed his temper in front of Shen Xi, expressionlessly telling Yan Ruo to go back first, leaving Shen Xi to rest quietly.
Yan Ruo walked away with the gait of a young married woman, turning back every few steps, as if she wanted to say something but hesitated.
However, early the next morning...
Jiang Ci and Shen Xi appeared at the airport, dressed neatly.
Shen Xi was wearing her favorite blue mermaid dress and light makeup.
As time went on, those who knew Shen Xi well knew that she would only wear her favorite clothes and light makeup to meet people on important occasions.
Jiang Ci, dressed in a dark blue suit, stood straight and tall next to Shen Xi.
The beautiful woman and handsome man combination attracted a lot of attention.
This also caught Yan Ruo's attention.
His eyes shone with an amazing light, and he flew over like a little bird, chirping away.
Yan Ruo was almost incoherent, "You...why did you come? Didn't you say you weren't coming to see me off?"
At the airport, the crowds are vast.
Yan Ruo stood to one side with his back to Guan, while Shen Xi and Jiang Ci stood on his other side. The pedestrians walking back and forth behind them seemed to be blurred into figures.
In this world, only the three of them remained.
"It's only right to see a good friend off."
Shen Xi's smile remained unchanged. It was as if she was constantly saying goodbye to people, seeing off one person after another, but she still smiled as she bid farewell to her friends from this time and space.
Jiang Ci's words were concise and to the point: "Have a safe journey."
Yan Ruo burst into tears and snot, squatting on the ground, sobbing and repeating that sentence over and over again.
“You must go back to the capital, you must go back. I will be waiting for you there... You must come back.”
Shen Xi gently patted his shoulder and said peacefully,
"Yanruo, don't confine yourself. Take big strides forward, don't look back, and go see this wonderful world."
The boy who often walked with a dog named Big Pretty Dog left on this ordinary, sunny morning.
The word "friend" always has many boundaries. Is it a lifelong companion or just a passerby?
Let fate decide.
After Yan Ruo left, Shen Xi and Jiang Ci's lives continued.
Perhaps because he had been suppressing his feelings for too long and his adolescence hadn't erupted, Shen Xi felt that Jiang Ci's adolescent restlessness had become particularly obvious recently.
He started bringing back a bouquet of flowers every day. He knew Shen Xi liked flowers but was too lazy to grow them, so he would trim the flowers he brought back each day and put them in a vase, taking good care of them every day.
Some flowers, when they were about to wither, were made into specimens by Jiang Ci, then into bookmarks, and finally appeared in Shen Xi's books.
He also started to become good at saying all sorts of embarrassing things, and suddenly he would blurt out a sentence while eating.
This caught Shen Xi off guard.
On Shen Xi's first day of adulthood, Jiang Ci took leave early to go home, cut out the flowers he had given Shen Xi over the years, and covered the whole house with them.
He used to dislike these fancy things, but over time, they gradually made his blood boil and stirred his heart.
He ordered a swan cake dressed in a little blue dress, but there was nothing written on it. However, there was a piping bag next to the cake.
—A sound like a scratch.
"Welcome home"
"Welcome home"
The mechanical sound and the boy's voice rang out at the same time.