A beam of pale golden sunlight pierced through a gap, illuminating this pitch-black underground space and lighting their path forward.
“Drip…”
A drop of clear water slowly rolled off the moss on the ceiling, creating ripples in a coin-sized puddle below.
Zhou Chao, drenched in sweat, stopped and let out a long breath.
“It looks like this should be the original parking area.”
“Ha, I told you we’d definitely get out!”
The expression on An Jing’s face also relaxed, and she even had the leisure to admire the rare scenery.
In this man-made underground space, there were traces of nature everywhere.
Sparse weeds grew in the cold concrete cracks, still deep green even though those outside had already turned yellow.
A few small insects stealthily crawled by, seemingly not wanting to disturb these ‘giants’ who had suddenly arrived.
“It feels like the world has ended and most of humanity has died out…”
An Jing’s bright eyes widened as she excitedly imagined, “And we are among the last surviving humans in this world, now going deep into an underground base to save the world…”
“Damn it, you’ve read too many novels, haven’t you?”
Zhou Chao glanced at her.
“Take pictures, take pictures. We’ll show them later, there’s such good scenery down here.”
“Yeah, gotta take pictures, even if just for remembrance. Otherwise, falling was for nothing.”
An Jing mumbled, pulling out her Nokia phone.
This phone was convenient for taking pictures; just rotate the bottom half ninety degrees, and it would automatically snap a photo.
As for the photo quality…
One could only say it was reasonably clear, but it certainly couldn’t convey the feeling of being there.
“Damn it, can’t capture the feeling. How about yours?”
“Although I’m using a Nokia…”
An Jing handed her phone to Zhou Chao.
“But it can only be said to be reasonably clear.”
“Six of one, half a dozen of the other.”
“Yeah.”
An Jing walked forward on her own.
“It still feels very dark. This place is too big, isn’t it?”
“At least a parking lot won’t wind around and around…”
“Should we play some music?”
Zhou Chao, still acting as the ‘flashlight,’ quickly caught up to her.
“It’s a bit too quiet here.”
“I feel like you’re talking about me.”
An Jing chuckled, twisting her mouth.
“I don’t know if you’ll like my songs. And I don’t have many, just a few dozen.”
“Just play anything, it’s mainly for the atmosphere.”
“Let me see…”
An Jing opened the phone’s built-in player, scrolled down by pressing the scroll wheel, and finally chose to play “Gong Xi Gong Xi.”
(Every street and alley, in everyone’s mouth, the first words when meeting are congratulations, congratulations…)
“Holy crap, the song you picked makes it feel even creepier!”
“You’re so demanding…”
An Jing rolled her eyes.
“How about this one?”
(The blooming of spring flowers takes away the sadness of winter…)
“At least it’s not so gloomy anymore.”
Zhou Chao slightly quickened his pace, walking ahead of An Jing.
“By the way, An Jing, do you still remember?”
“Remember what?”
“Things from the first year of junior high.”
“First year? What about the first year?”
“Hey—!”
Zhou Chao dragged out his voice, a little impatient and a little embarrassed.
“Did you forget, kid?”
“Oh… oh! When the first semester was almost over, right?”
“Yes.”
“Of course I remember.”
An Jing, with nothing to do with her hands, kept bending the bottom half of her phone, turning it from left to right, and then from right to left.
“You had a childhood sweetheart, known since kindergarten, confirmed as a couple in elementary school, and then dated all the way until elementary graduation. You two were still together until junior high, and then, well…”
Zhou Chao chuckled dryly, as if mocking his past self, “Back then, I thought I had found the happiest love of my life, and that I would be with a girl from kindergarten until marriage, and then walk through this long life.”
“Mm, but then she got together with someone else, and let other boys touch places you’d never touched—to be honest, that guy wasn’t even as handsome as you.”
“It was probably just boredom from being together for so long. That guy was from another school.”
Zhou Chao said with a smile.
“I was really young back then.”
“It hasn’t been that many years since then, okay? But you definitely wouldn’t cry in the corner of the classroom all day if you broke up now like you did back then.”
“Damn it, don’t say that!”
Zhou Chao awkwardly scratched his cheek.
He, who always had a dashing demeanor, was rarely so shy.
“Making me sound so innocent.”
“You really were like that back then.”
“So, innocent men are useless men.”
“You bastard, who are you cursing!”
An Jing, walking behind, squeezed her phone and gave him a hard smack on the back.
“Holy crap, you’re hitting me with a rock!”
“What rock, it’s my phone!”
“Pretty much the same thing.”
An Jing couldn’t help but laugh, joining in the joke, “It’s much harder than a rock. I’m counting on it to block a bullet for me someday.”
“You’re not in Iraq, where would you need to block bullets?”
Zhou Chao stopped and turned to her, saying, “Sigh, thinking about that day, it was also the two of us, walking in the underground parking garage after school.”
“That was the school’s bike shed.”
An Jing pouted.
“You clearly wanted someone to go back with you, but when everyone asked if you wanted company, you refused.”
“Then why did you follow me?”
“I was on my way anyway, damn it.”
“Tch!”
Zhou Chao raised his middle finger.
“But thinking back now, it’s quite interesting. Anyway, thank you for accompanying me home that day.”
“What, if I didn’t accompany you, would you jump into a river or something?”
“Probably not, but I might be so dejected that I’d get hit by a car while crossing the road or something.”
“People also know how to brake, okay?”
“Haha…”
He placed his broad and slender hand on An Jing’s shoulder.
“Hey, by the way, kid, do you know about Zhu Ying’s thing?”
“Zhu Ying? What about Zhu Ying?”
An Jing feigned nonchalance, but her ears perked up.
“She doesn’t seem to have any scandals, does she?”
“What the hell ‘scandal’?”
Now it was Zhou Chao’s turn to be surprised.
“What are you talking about?”
“Then what are you talking about?”
“You forgot how we met?”
“Oh… in elementary school, you were in the class next door. That time, I was walking home from school and saw someone bullying a girl in the alley, so I went over…”
“Damn it, you hit the wrong person! You hit me!”
“Hahahaha—”
An Jing couldn’t help but laugh at the memory.
“How was I supposed to know?!”
“There were people lying on the ground, two of them! Why didn’t you use your brain and think? Goodness, you just came up and punched me. I didn’t even have time to explain.”
“Ha… hahaha…”
It was a hero’s rescue that came a little late.
Actually, the incident was already over, but the girl who was rescued was still a bit shaken.
Her delicate, flustered appearance immediately made An Jing’s gaze fix on the only boy standing next to her.
“Why did you think I was the one bullying her? Do I look like a bad guy?”
“You’ve been handsome since you were a kid. You just don’t look like a good person.”
“Damn it, jealous, are you?!”
“So why are we talking about this? Does it have anything to do with Zhu Ying?”
“That girl from the other school was Zhu Ying! I only found out later. You still don’t know?”
“No one told me, how the hell would I know…? Uh… it doesn’t look like her. When she was little, she was as skinny as a monkey, just bones. And her face wasn’t good-looking—I forgot, I just remember she wasn’t good-looking.”
“Don’t you know about the ‘eighteen changes’ a girl goes through as she grows?”
“That, I actually… feel deeply.”
“Haha—Wang Xinru, right?”
An Jing, of course, was not at all surprised that he would notice this.
“Oh, and actually, by the time I arrived, there was already a boy beaten down.”
“Huh?”
“She did it.”
“Holy crap.”
An Jing looked shocked.
“Really? No way? Zhu Ying looks so delicate…”
“It was elementary school. The difference between boys and girls isn’t that big. Maybe girls were even stronger back then.”
“I’m hearing about this for the first time.”
“Hahahaha, I also never expected her to become how she is now. Time, it’s truly interesting, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, we’re almost graduating from junior high. We’ll be old after high school.”
“That’s called becoming an adult.”
“Becoming an adult isn’t getting old?”
Zhou Chao opened his mouth, wanting to retort, but had to admit he also thought the same.
SHE’s song “Don’t Wanna Grow Up” coincidentally played on the phone.
(I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna, don’t wanna grow up, there’ll be no fairy tales in the world when I grow up…)
Zhou Chao couldn’t help but hum along, “I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna, don’t wanna grow up, I’d rather be forever dumb and silly…”
“I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna, don’t wanna grow up, I’ll lose him when I grow up~”
“Hey, An Jing, what do you think ‘lose him’ in the lyrics refers to?”
“It should be referring to the person you like, I used to think that.”
An Jing looked at the glowing screen.
“But now I think it should be referring to one’s parents and relatives, because when we grow up, they get old, and people die… Sigh.”
“I think ‘him’ here refers to ourselves. When we grow up, we’re not the same as when we were kids. Our childhood selves ‘died’ when we grew up.”
“You’re actually saying something sensible for once?”
An Jing looked at him, a little surprised.
“Damn it, what nonsense are you talking about?!”
Zhou Chao yelled discontentedly.
“What I say is always sensible, okay?!”
“Save it…”
An Jing smiled, but the hint of sorrow on her face didn’t fade.
“When I was little, I really wanted to grow up quickly, to become an adult and have freedom, to do everything I wanted. But the older I get, the more I fear growing up, hoping time would pass slower, but time…”
“But time passes slowly when we’re young, and as we get older, it speeds up. The more we wish it would slow down, the faster it goes…”
“It’s almost like it’s deliberately contradicting us.”
Zhou Chao laughed and patted An Jing’s shoulder, “How about you grow up quickly, and then share the time you save with me?”
“Idiot!” “
An Jing laughed and scolded him, also slapping Zhou Chao’s back hard.
At least for now, the two of them hadn’t grown up yet, and the road to becoming an adult was still long, with plenty of time ahead.
At least, that’s what they thought.
Well that’s ominous…