until the last minute

The day Zhou Yin returned to school was Monday, and he entered the classroom at the end of morning reading.Because of his return, the noisy classroom was eerily quiet for a few seconds. No one looked at him openly, but he knew that everyone was paying attention to his movements.

Before he came back, Ruan Wei had made various explicit hints on WeChat, telling him to come back a few days later.He could probably guess that it was he who asked Chen Ke to spread the rumors, and finally the rumors became more and more popular, perhaps to the point where everyone knew about them.

He doesn't need to try to prove it. From the evasive eyes of the people around him, and the slight neglect, he can verify that the rumor is widely spread and people believe it.

During the class break, Ruan Wei went to the door of their class on purpose, called out his name loudly, told him to come out, took his arm affectionately, and begged him to accompany her to the infirmary.

After passing through the corridor with people coming and going, he took the initiative to pull out the arm held by Ruan Wei and said, "Okay, no one has to watch it and don't need to act."

Ruan Wei rolled his eyes at him, and muttered: "I'm helping you, and I told you to come back a few days later, but you won't listen to me."

"It's okay, no one said anything to me, should I accompany you to the infirmary?" Zhou Yin laughed.

Ruan Wei grabbed his arm, stared at him and said, "Of course, to help each other, you must accompany me."

Zhou Yin sent him to the infirmary, and he waited outside when the school doctor consulted him.It's not that he doesn't understand Ruan Wei's intentions, when everyone else keeps a distance from him, Ruan Wei pretends to be very close to him, this kind of rare kindness he hasn't experienced for a long time.

If it had been earlier, maybe they could have become friends, but there was not much time left for him.

Bored of waiting, he flipped through his phone, returned Chen Ke's WeChat, cleared the chat records of the class group and grade group, and seriously thought about what his mother asked him what he wanted to eat tonight.

He ignored dozens of unread messages from Li Qing, neither read nor replied.After finishing all this, he put away his mobile phone, and two figures appeared out of nowhere, blocking him.

"Find a place to talk." The leader put gauze on his forehead and looked at him coldly. "Don't even think about leaving, you can't escape."

Zhou Yin scanned the surrounding environment, and went straight to the wind and rain corridor diagonally ahead.Leaning against a pillar, he took out his mobile phone and checked the time, looking calm and composed, "What do you want to say? Class starts in 5 minutes."

"You can really do it, why don't you play tricks on me, deliberately release that kind of fake news, and play fairy dance with me?" the man said in a vicious voice.

Zhou Yin asked back: "What did I lie to you? I took money from one person, and you have three people here. Who is playing tricks?"

"Is it really fake news? Are you really planning to sleep with me and make money?" the other party asked suspiciously.

Zhou Yin smiled frivolously, "Yeah, I've said it before, you can make money by having fun, so why not do it."

"Hey! You've heard it all, it's just what he put in, and he didn't lie to you." The man suddenly shouted forward, Zhou Yin's complexion turned pale, and his body froze in place, as if he already knew who was behind him.

The two people who came to look for him left, leaving him with contemptuous and contemptuous looks at the end.

The hand holding the mobile phone was drooping weakly, and the knuckles were white. He could feel a pair of eyes behind him inspecting him carefully. Those eyes were as sharp as cold arrows, and they wanted to cut two holes in his back. There is no way to resist such scrutiny, almost unable to stand——

Strong arms wrapped around his waist in time, and he fell into a familiar embrace again.

This hug only lasted for a blink of an eye, and soon separated, followed by his wrist being grabbed, and a bundled roll of hundred-dollar bills was forced into his palm.

Li Qing looked at him with cold eyes, "How many nights can you buy with so much money?"

Zhou Yin was shivering all over his body, he felt cold for no reason, as if he had fallen into an ice cave, and the person who could save him in the past was now standing on the ice.

He didn't dare to hope that he could be rescued, and he didn't even dare to hope that someone could help him.

The ringing of the class bell relieved him, Li Qing touched his face, and the moment he leaned closer to speak, he almost thought it was a kindness.However, Li Qing said to him in the gentlest tone: "Remember to come to me tonight after collecting the money. If you don't come, I don't mind going to your house to find you."

Zhou Yin didn't say a word, he tried his best to open his eyes, until the eye sockets became sore.I can no longer shed tears on Li Qing, the current him can't exchange for love and pity, it will only show his ridiculousness even more.

"Don't cry," Li Qing said, "This trick is very useful, how many times have I been fooled?"

"Go back, see you tonight." Li Qing wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes with his fingertips. As if he still didn't think it was enough, he leaned close and kissed him intimately. He had no scruples, wishing everyone knew their love illicit sexual relations.

It's a pity that after the class bell rang for a long time, the whole campus was quiet again. No one knew about the transactions and tears that happened in this corner. Only the shadow of the whirling tree nearby witnessed one person turning and leaving, and the other person's eyes following each other.

Before going out that night, Zhou Yin reported to his mother that he might not come back to sleep.His mother asked him if he was reconciled, but he didn't answer, but checked again whether the house key was in his pocket.

He went to Li Qing's rental house early and opened the door with the spare key in the mailbox.He boiled a pot of hot water and turned on the switch of the electric water heater in the bathroom. He had nothing else to do except these.

There were no dishes to wash in the kitchen sink, the laundry basket was empty, and there were expired bread and rice balls in the refrigerator, which he picked out and threw away.Then he took the spare key, went out, and went to the supermarket 10 minutes away on foot.

I bought fresh eggs and fruits, bread with a short shelf life, and milk and microwave foods with a long shelf life.When he checked out, he took a box of condoms from the small shelf, and didn't look carefully at the brand and model, and he didn't dare to compare and choose for a long time like the people in the checkout line next to him.

Walking out of the supermarket with two big bags in hand, he passed a flower shop on the way back. Many flowers that he couldn't name were blooming brilliantly, competing in every color.The clerk held the packaged bouquet of roses in both hands and handed it to a man in a windbreaker. The moment the man opened the door and came out, a familiar Christmas song rang out from the store.

Cheerful and romantic, warm and beautiful.

The Christmas song he heard just now echoed in his heart. Before he finished listening to the song, he hummed it softly, and even felt a little happier.He seems to have just remembered that Christmas is coming, this year is coming to an end, and the time limit he agreed with Li Qing is also coming to an end.

He didn't think about how to face the end of the day, he didn't think about what to buy for Christmas presents, all his heart was on tonight, he still didn't know how to spend tonight, whether it would be as he wished spend.

Back at the rental house, he put the food in the refrigerator, and then took a brief shower.When he lay down in Li Qing's quilt, with the heavy quilt pressed on his body, while warm, he felt like he had turned into a hibernating bear in a trance, hiding in a tree hole that could withstand the blizzard.

The sweet dreamland lured him, and the sleepiness came too quickly. The moment he closed his eyes, he seemed to be dragged into Alice's rabbit hole.

At the end of the dream, there is a spring full of flowers and brocades. When he opened his eyes, he saw Li Qing.

Li Qing will never forget how he felt when he learned from other people that the person being pushed into the ambulance was Zhou Yin.There was no reply to WeChat, and no one answered the phone. He escaped from his evening study to find him at his home, but the lights in the whole house were not turned on. It was Ruan Wei who kindly told others that he was in the hospital.

He returned to school in a daze. The last half hour of evening self-study was extremely lively. Ruan Wei finally came back from the teacher's office as the party involved.

At first everyone thought it was just another common emotional dispute.

But Li Qing knew it wasn't, Zhou Yin and Ruan Wei had no relationship, Ruan Wei's unresolved shock, and the state of faltering and avoiding his interrogation all revealed to him that things were not that simple.

Knowing that there were three more people in the teacher's office, Li Qing decided to block them directly.Before the evening self-study ended, he waited for the other three parties.

Xu Shi had been trained all night, and the three of them were all pale and exhausted.As soon as Li Qing appeared, listening to his explanation of the purpose of coming, the three of them skillfully explained the fight in the evening, their language was extremely fluent, and their voices had no ups and downs, as if they had spoken to each other countless times beforehand.

Li Qing asked one of them suspiciously: "Because of the emotional dispute, you asked two brothers to beat him up?"

"Yes, after a few quarrels, we will start."

Li Qing nodded, signaling clearly.

He didn't go back to the classroom, but quietly followed the three of them in the dark.

As expected, those three people started to swear when they got far away. Listening to their few words mixed with all kinds of obscene words, Li Qing pieced together the whole story.

"You should beat him to death and trick us!"

"Where did you hear the rumors, who said that this bitch is cheap, let us all play?"

"Damn! I fell in love with him sooner or later!"

"He's already undressed, so it's up to the three of us to do it together!"

Li Qing casually picked up the road cone on the ground, and slammed it hard at the three people in front.He attacked so suddenly that they were completely unprepared, even three against one.

He wasn't very good at fighting, but he was merciless and punched to the flesh, and he would get it back exactly how many times he took.He may not win the fight, but he will never be the one to back down and beg for mercy.

It didn't take long for the three of them to exhaust their energy and give up.

Li Qing said: "Let me tell you the whole thing again, I want to listen to the truth."

Starting from a rumor, Li Qing heard the whole story.He didn't say anything, just turned around and left.

The next day, he found out that everyone had heard the rumor.

Different versions of the incident were circulated in the mouths of the population and in various WeChat group chats. With the help of imagination and the absurd rumor, everyone restored the ins and outs of the incident.

Li Qing listened indifferently, he couldn't jump out to speak for Zhou Yin, to clarify that those were all slander and slander.

He knew it was all true.

That night he went to find Zhou Yin, and Zhou Yin's mother kindly persuaded him to go back, but he didn't agree, so he stood outside the gate and waited, looking at Zhou Yin's room.

Street lamps accompany him, and so do the few stars in the night sky.The light in Zhou Yin's room was not on all night.