Jun Chen nodded while he could not keep up with He, then he hesitated, “Right now? The air tickets and high-speed rail tickets may be sold out at this time…”
“Then go by train.” He Bai put the music scores and old photo into Jun Chen’s hands and smiled, “Airport was only available in several major cities in the days when your parents escorted you away from your home to study, and there was no high-speed railway station. You had left your parents by train, why don’t you go back to them the same way now?
Jun Chen’s heart sank, then he lowered his head, looking at the old photo on the music scores.
Perhaps he was moved by He Bai, or it was the emotional backlog from creating the album that finally reached the critical point, or it was the opportunity he finally got to face up to the pains and guilt buried in his heart along these years…
“Fine.” He nodded, gripped his hands slowly, and looked up at He Bai with his red-rimmed eyes. “Let’s go back by train. I’m gonna visit them.”
They took leave without delay, despite the studio’s work or next day’s classes. They drove to the railway station, and finally got on the train to C province when night fell.
The train travelled slow, and it was a torture to them. To Jun Chen, however, the several hours passed were the most peaceful moments in his mind over the years.
He took with him the music scores and the old photo. Seeing that there were few people in the carriage, he came to a more quite place and told He Bai about the past in detail.
He Bai opened his ears to listen and snapshot from time to time, trying to be an ideal listener and recorder.
They took a taxi later, and then went on foot. Jun Chen detoured to buy some flowers, but when he got to the foot of the hill, he loathed these stereotyped flowers, which had been carefully cultivated. “Mother won’t like it.” He thought. Then he gave it to He Bai, and plucked the wildflowers by the roadside. Finally, he bunched it up in a clumsy way.
At dawn, along the bumpy mountain road, they finally arrived at the two graveyards that were adjacent to each other on the hillside. The graveyards had been watched by specially-assigned person, because it looked neat and tidy without weeds around.
Jun Chen halted at ten steps away. He flattened the wrinkles in his shirt, groomed his hair, and then proceeded with flowers carefully.
He Bai sensibly stopped, and then he looked around to seek a place where he would not bother Jun Chen, waiting in peace.
It was a misty morning in the hill, with dew on the grass-blade. Jun Chen, who was on the go overnight, somewhat dispirited after casting off his daily glamorous appearance. However, only before his parents, Jun Chen could find the true self.
He bowed his head at the gravestones, standing and whispering, with the flowers in his hands. Somehow he had not put it down.
The sun was rising while the fog dispersing. When the first ray of sunlight broke through the thick fog and shone on the gravestones, Jun Chen, who had kept mute for long, stooped down and placed the bouquet at last.
Click.
The scene was fixed.
At this time, Jun Chen, who was stooping down to present flowers in front of the tombstone, overlapped with the pretty lady, who was plucking flowers in the old photo. One of them dressed up to console her homesick son and the other came back to his parents regardless of the hardships of travel and his personal image, only because he missed them.
It was all about love.
In the morning breeze, He Bai put down the camera, laid the delicate flowers handed over by Jun Chen on the grass land, and fell back two steps and laid on his stomach. He then took a photo through the gap of the flowers, of which Jun Chen was sitting and playing the harmonica before the tombstone.
It was noon when they went down the hill. He Bai was scolded by roommate through phone call, while Jun Chen received urgent calls from assistant. They looked at each other and said nothing, then rushed to the airport without any delay and bought tickets to B city.
In the evening, He Bai handed over the album cover he had edited. Most part of the old photo was the same, as he had only edited some defects. On the back side of the cover, Jun Chen stood in the rising morning twilight, bending over to the tombstone to lay a bouquet. It was covered with flowers where the new and the old photo overlapped, and there were some butterflies or things like that dancing to the music played by Jun Chen.
Ten minutes later, He Bai received a short message with a simple “thank you” from Jun Chen. He Bai knew that his cover had been adopted. He was content for his work, however, he was long-awaited by his roommates, who went into madness upon seeing him.
“XiaoBai, you’re screwed! How could you skip classes!” Niu Junjie rushed to him and shook him on the shoulder. “Do you know someone is smearing you online? Everyone is waiting for your response, but you skipped classes. With this misstep, they are abusing you even more now! And some fence-sitters are wondering whether you’re the bastard described in the gossip!”
Wang Hu frowned and raged, then he inferred, “It must be our classmate who initiated the slander, because he knows XiaoBai well. And it’s impossible for others to know that much.”
Chen Jie calmed down and analyzed, “It mentioned the scholarship at the very beginning. Thus I suspect that XiaoBai was the block to the person who failed to get the scholarship, while Huang Wei was the only one in our class who didn’t get the scholarship because of XiaoBai.”
“I knew it was that son of a bitch!” Niu Junjie released He Bai and rolled sleeves in anger. “He called me a good-for-nothing 2G Rich, fxxk him!”
Wang Hu soothed him right away. “Calm down. We may be recorded a demerit for fight!”
Chen Jie urged either, “LaoSan, it’s unwise. It would be better to ask the counselor to handle the affair, because we are the victim of the incident now. If we resort to fisticuff, we’ll be the villain who are in the wrong and ashamed into anger to revenge. Other classmates know XiaoBai well, thus they don’t believe the stories at all, while only the netizens who have no idea of the truth are tricked.
He Bai was confused, he tried to digest the information in their words and made a conclusion, then he was surprised, “Huang Wei slandered me online? When?