Twenty-Three Degrees Part 3

Wei Congying pointed to the cigarettes on the shelf behind her: “The second column from the right, the one below…the one below that one.”

The shelf was quite high. Wei Congying saw her stand up on her tiptoes and take down the cigarette pack: “How many packs do you want?”

Wei Congying turned the darkened screen back on and raised his hand to indicate a number one.

“A total of seventy-one dollars and sixty cents.”

Wei Congying turned the phone screen to her.

She pointed to the QR code posted on the checkout counter and continued: “Scan it and I’ll give it to you for seventy-one.”

There was a plastic strip door curtain at the entrance of the convenience store. The strip door curtain looked a bit old. Because it was summer,  the curtains were moved to the side and tied together with a rope. But they would likely put it down within the next two days. After all, winter came early in the capital.

The crisp autumn season has passed, and winter will likely come earlier to the capital this year. The camphor trees planted along the road not far away had lost an alarming amount of leaves, and some had turned red and yellow, hanging precariously on the branches.

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By the time he walked back to the hotel door, he hadn’t finished smoking the cigarette in his hand. He stood under the camphor tree with fallen leaves and looked up at the hotel and its “no smoking in the lobby” sign.

It didn’t look good and appeared shabby from the outside.

There were only two people working at the front desk, working shifts in the morning and evening.

Wei Congying actually met the person on the night shift more often, but he couldn’t recall their appearance, because every time he came back from the racing track, she would be lying down at the front desk, sleeping, leaving Wei Congying with the same view of the top of her head.

The cigarette was almost gone.

A leaf fell on his sleeve. He looked at the yellowed leaf and raised his hand to brush the leaf away with the hand holding the cigarette. The ash fell on his black sleeve. The jacket was made of waterproof material so the ash did not stick to it. When the next gust of wind came, The gray-white soot also disappeared.

As the cigarette burned, he slowly collected the ash on the end of the cigarette.

Looking at the extremely fragile ash in boredom, he wondered how long it would last. As soon as he finished the thought, Wei Congying heard a whistle. His hand shook, and the ash fell.

–

It was Jiang Xuyang who first saw Wei Congying standing by the roadside.

When Lin Fang put his foot down on the brake, he wasn’t even the least bit worried about the possibility of being rear-ended by a car behind him. He flicked on the turn signal, and parked the car on the side of the road. Feeling that it wasn’t enough, he then honked the car horn.

It’s a pity that he was not frightened in the least.

Wei Congying turned around and found that it was them, but not the slightest joy could be seen on his face.

His eyes looked past the two censuring individuals and landed on Shi Yun, who had unhurriedly gotten out of the car from the back row seats.

As someone out of the loop, she still felt a little confused. She slowly pulled up the knitted sweater that had fallen off her shoulder.

To Lin Fang’s never-changing and repetitive spiel, Wei Congying ignored them as usual and acted deaf and dumb.

Ignoring Lin Fang who walked up to him, he watched Shi Yun slowly walk over, raised his hand to put out the cigarette on the lid of the trash can, and extended his free hand towards Shi Yun who walked up to him.

Lin Fang was still there asking: “What’s the matter with you? Do you know how worried we were about you?”

Wei Congying blocked out his endless jabber.

When she placed her hand in his, she saw him simply nod calmly towards Jiang Xuyang in the face of Lin Fang’s concern, and say in the most irritating calm manner: “You guys go back first.”

Nothing else was said.

He didn’t explain why he was here, and he didn’t tell them how he was.

Of course, the subjects of ‘You guys go back first’ did not include Shi Yun.

Lin Fang became even more angry after hearing the eviction order. After worrying about him for so many days, he almost called the police.

But compared to Lin Fang’s lack of composure, Jiang Xuyang was calmer and not angry. He looked at Shi Yun and then at Wei Congying: “Okay, if you need anything, call me.”

Then he signaled to Lin Fang, who hadn’t even been out of the car for a minute, to get in the car and leave.

“We’re leaving now?” Lin Fang was confused.

Jiang Xuyang ignored him, opened the door, and got in the car.

Seeing Jiang Xuyang get into the car obediently, Lin Fang moved his mouth and cursed silently. After kicking the wheel hub, he opened the driver’s door and got in the car.

He looked at the person in the passenger seat who was putting on his seat belt.

Lin Fang looked past Jiang Xuyang and then at the two people standing together outside the car. Lin Fang kept feeling that this trip was in vain: “Are we going back like this?”

“It’s good to see that he’s not dead. He’s twenty-five years old, halfway to fifty. You should stop looking after him like an old woman. If he was willing to submit to discipline, he wouldn’t be capable of doing something like this. So you nag too much, and he finds it annoying. Now, take me to work and drive slower on the road, otherwise, I will still catch up with the meeting.” Jiang Xuyang folded his arms and closed his eyes to rest, “Besides, they are just about to start cutting down trees on the mountain¹[1] AKA, they’re about to do it.. The two of us are in the way.”

Watching Lin Fang’s car gradually disappear at the traffic light intersection, Shi Yun realized that she had not gotten in the car. She had to say that Lin Fang’s driving skills were very good and he drove very steadily, so much so that she felt sleepy along the way.

Her eyes were still on the intersection where the car disappeared, until she felt a rubbing sensation on her fingers, causing her to draw her wandering attention back to her body.

Wei Congying squeezed her fingers and saw that he had regained her attention before speaking: “Are you busy lately?”

“That’s for sure.” Shi Yun glanced at him, deriding him, “I’m not as free as you anyway, you even have time to play missing.”

Her tone was enigmatic.

Wei Congying was very happy to see her come with Lin Fang and the others to find him.

Because he was happy, he felt she was cute when he heard her enigmatic tone: “It makes my heart hurt to hear your heart-wrenching words.”

Shi Yun raised his hand, clenched it into a fist, and punched his chest: “You deserve it.”

Notes:

[1] AKA, they’re about to do it.