Seventh Year Of Separation chapter 38

The Second Snowfall

“You turn around first,” Gu Jiahe said, looking up at him.

“Why? Is there something you don’t want me to see?” Li Zhao didn’t turn around.

Gu Jiahe thought to himself, yeah, we’re both men, what’s there to hide?

With his eyes closed, he said, “Morning wood! Do you want to see?”

“It’s not like I can’t look.” Li Zhao tucked his arms in, half-smirking as he looked at him.

Gu Jiahe increasingly realized that the current Li Zhao was not a mature professional; deep down, he was still that eighteen-year-old boy.

Even his mischievous ways hadn’t changed.

With a pep talk to himself, Gu Jiahe briskly pulled back the blanket. But as soon as he looked up, he realized Li Zhao had already turned his back at some point.

Guess he still had a bit of conscience left.

Gu Jiahe dashed into the bathroom, took a vigorous shower, and emerged.

By the time he had changed into a T-shirt and sweater and stepped out, Li Zhao had already changed and was waiting for him in the foyer, swift on his feet.

Before Gu Jiahe could push the door open, Li Zhao suddenly said, “Wear something warm. It’s getting much colder today.”

“There’s a big drop in temperature today.”

Gu Jiahe nodded and went back to grab a thick scarf.

The two of them finished getting ready and walked out of the hotel. The cold wind from last night had left dry leaves scattered all over Pingcheng’s streets.

Gu Jiahe’s hometown wasn’t far from here. He zipped up his coat all the way to the top and led the way.

He felt a bit nervous. This was the first time in many years that he had brought Li Zhao to see his home.

His dilapidated home that he had tried so hard to conceal.

They walked along a small path for about ten minutes, and the surrounding buildings went from tall skyscrapers to low shacks.

Gu Jiahe turned into an alley, and Li Zhao glanced up, following him in.

After walking for a dozen meters or so, Gu Jiahe stopped and turned to Li Zhao, saying, “We’re here.”

In front of Li Zhao was a somewhat flimsy wooden door, and the house was only one story high, with windows made of thin, old-fashioned green glass.

Gu Jiahe took out the very old brass key from his pocket. This door hadn’t been opened in a long time, and the lock was a bit rusty. He had to twist it several times before it finally clicked open.

Creak—

The wooden door made a hoarse, scraping sound, and a cloud of dust billowed out from inside.

Gu Jiahe motioned for Li Zhao to step back a bit and brushed off the dust himself.

“Come in.” Then he turned and invited him in.

Li Zhao was a bit dazed. This house was not quite what he had imagined. The living room was small, with a worn-out octagonal table with many scratches, and one of the table legs was missing a piece of wood.

Following Li Zhao’s gaze, Gu Jiahe smiled and said, “Beaten by my father, lost a piece of wood.”

“Did he beat you?” Li Zhao’s voice was low as he turned to ask him.

Gu Jiahe nodded, saying nothing else.

Li Zhao’s Adam’s apple bobbed, and he followed Gu Jiahe into his bedroom.

Just then, a gust of wind swept by, and the corrugated iron roof rattled. Li Zhao glanced up.

Gu Jiahe seemed accustomed to this noise, continuing to lead the way inside.

“No one lives here now?” Li Zhao asked him.

Gu Jiahe nodded, “Yeah, my father had another child later. We moved to another place.”

He paused for a moment, adding, “Probably felt this place was unlucky.”

The small bed in Gu Jiahe’s bedroom was very narrow. Next to the green glass window was a small desk. Gu Jiahe squatted down and pulled open the wooden drawer under the desk.

Bang—

After rummaging for a while, he took out a stack of papers and a thin notebook.

“What’s this?” Li Zhao asked from behind him.

“Medical records.” Gu Jiahe flipped open the notebook and blew off the dust on the surface.

Li Zhao walked over to him, took the medical records, and began to flip through them. The medical records were quite old, dated 2005, when Gu Jiahe was fifteen.

However, almost every page of the medical records had different content.

The doctor’s notes were sloppy. Li Zhao squinted as he tried to make them out.

“Fractured forearm.”

“Soft tissue contusion.”

“Orbital trauma…”

Li Zhao read aloud the records he could recognize one by one. But halfway through, he fell silent; there were too many pages.

Each page of that medical record represented an injury Gu Jiahe had suffered. The dates on the records were from 2005 to 2008.

Even after Li Zhao had known Gu Jiahe, during his senior year of high school, Gu Jiahe had gone to the hospital for a back injury.

Li Zhao was frozen in place, unable to move.

Gu Jiahe, on the other hand, seemed unperturbed. Taking the medical records back from him, he chuckled softly, “I’m used to it. It’s nothing.”

“Unfortunately, there was no police report back then. Having a police record would have been more advantageous.” Gu Jiahe rummaged through the desk again and found a very old receipt.

“Only this.” he handed it to Li Zhao. “This is a receipt from when my mother fought with him, and I called the police.”

“What happened afterward?”

“Nothing, they just mediated and left.” Gu Jiahe shook his head.

Turning away, Gu Jiahe took off his scarf and placed it on the table. His smooth neck was exposed. Li Zhao watched his back in silence.

The house was really old. After Gu Jiahe found what he needed, he packed up and prepared to leave with Li Zhao as soon as possible.

It was already noon, but there was no sunlight outside the window. It seemed like the weather was about to change drastically. Behind the low old house was a row of trees swaying gently in the wind.

As Gu Jiahe took the first step out of the door, Li Zhao suddenly grabbed his sleeve.

Perplexed, Gu Jiahe turned to look at him. Li Zhao was holding the scarf that had fallen on the table. He raised his hand to help Gu Jiahe put it on, preventing the wind from getting in, and tied a knot.

Exhaling a faint breath, Li Zhao’s face showed no expression, but his eyes seemed clear like a spring, reflecting Gu Jiahe’s face.

Gu Jiahe was startled by his gaze and quickly looked away.

“Where to next?” Li Zhao asked.

The time for the insurance company to settle the claim was scheduled for Monday, leaving Sunday afternoon suddenly free.

“High School?” Gu Jiahe hadn’t been back to school for many years and didn’t know what it was like now.

Li Zhao nodded in agreement.

The No. 15 bus had stopped running a long time ago. From Gu Jiahe’s house to their former high school, they had to take a taxi.

Standing on the cold roadside, Gu Jiahe hailed a taxi. Li Zhao followed him into the back seat.

The taxi driver had the radio on, and coincidentally, the weather forecast was playing.

“According to the Pingcheng Meteorological Bureau, this afternoon and evening, Pingcheng will welcome the first snowfall of the winter, nearly a month earlier than last year. This year marks the earliest snowfall in Pingcheng in nearly five years. Citizens are advised to pay attention to travel safety…”

“It’s going to snow,” Gu Jiahe murmured softly.

As soon as he finished speaking, the taxi’s window was suddenly covered with several white flakes.

“It’s already snowing,” Li Zhao said.

Then, almost magically, heavy snowflakes began to fall from the sky outside the car window.

In no time, the snow covered half of the window, and the driver had to turn on the wipers.

The taxi driver impatiently honked the horn, “Hey, the road conditions are getting worse with this snow.”

Gu Jiahe peered ahead and saw that the intersection ahead was already congested, with traffic backed up for more than ten meters.

“Are you in a hurry?” the driver asked them.

“No, take your time,” Gu Jiahe shook his head.

What should have been a journey of just over ten minutes ended up taking more than half an hour. When they got off the car, Gu Jiahe wanted to pay the fare, but Li Zhao beat him to it.

After getting off, Gu Jiahe looked up and almost didn’t recognize the school in front of him.

Their high school had undergone renovation, with a brand-new facade that was much taller than before, and the exterior walls were covered in marble, giving it a grand appearance.

That day was Sunday, and the seniors didn’t have classes. The main gate of the school was closed, with only a small side door open. Perhaps the security had forgotten to lock it.

“Shall we go in?” Li Zhao walked up to him.

“Let’s go.” The two of them walked through the side door.

The snow was getting heavier as they walked. They hadn’t brought an umbrella when they left the hotel. Gu Jiahe’s eyes were momentarily blinded by the snowflakes, so he stopped to rub his eyelids.

Then, in the next moment, he felt his head covered by a hat. Li Zhao was behind him, pulling the hood of his down jacket over his head.

Gu Jiahe turned to look at him.

After walking for about five minutes, their down jackets were covered with snowflakes, and they finally reached the teaching building. Gu Jiahe shook his body to shake off the snowflakes from his clothes.

Their high school had only renovated its facade, and the interior buildings remained the same, with even the building signs unchanged.

Gu Jiahe walked through the corridors of the teaching building, proceeding forward. Li Zhao seemed to know where he was going, walking beside him with synchronized steps. They were heading in the same direction.

A few minutes later, they stopped in front of a large door. Above the door were two words: Swimming Pool.

The dot of the “Water” character had fallen off and disappeared.

“What now? It seems to be locked.” Gu Jiahe pulled the door and turned to ask Li Zhao.

“Let’s climb in through the window,” Li Zhao pointed to the half-height windows nearby.

For some reason, at that moment, Gu Jiahe felt a faint excitement, as if he had really returned to eighteen.

Li Zhao pushed the window, perhaps because the building was old and hadn’t been maintained, the window tracks were dry and stiff. Even Li Zhao had to exert some force to open it completely.

Li Zhao lifted his leg and jumped onto the windowsill, then easily flipped into the swimming pool. He stood inside, reaching out to Gu Jiahe.

“Come on, I’ll pull you in.”

Li Zhao’s palm was in front of Gu Jiahe. He hesitated for two seconds before grabbing Li Zhao’s hand.

Li Zhao pulled him up onto the windowsill with force, and Gu Jiahe took two seconds to steady himself.

Looking at Li Zhao’s outstretched hand, he quickly waved it away, “I’ll jump down by myself.”

Thud— he landed smoothly on the ground.

Perhaps after they graduated, very few people had visited this place. Even the light bulbs in the ceiling of the venue had burst, and Gu Jiahe pressed the switch several times, but it didn’t turn on.

Fortunately, the swimming pool had a glass roof, allowing natural light to shine through.

Gu Jiahe found a piece of paper to wipe the benches by the poolside clean.

The two sat by the swimming pool, listening to the sound of snowflakes falling on the roof. With the early arrival of the cold wave this year and the power outage in the venue for a long time, a thin layer of ice had formed on the surface of the swimming pool.

Glancing at Li Zhao beside him, Gu Jiahe suddenly felt as if they were in another world. The last time they sat here like this was ten years ago.

Coincidentally, ten years later, Pingcheng was once again greeted with rare heavy snowfall.

Li Zhao looked up at the sky full of snowflakes, as if suddenly remembering something, and turned to look into Gu Jiahe’s eyes.

He asked, “In early 2008, what caused your back injury?”

Gu Jiahe didn’t expect him to suddenly bring this up and was a little stunned.

“I saw it in your medical records. January, it should have just been winter vacation, right?”

Gu Jiahe hesitated for two seconds. “Yeah.”

“Was it on the day after the heavy snowfall?” Li Zhao tried hard to recall the details.

“Yes. But that snowfall was a disaster for my family.” His gaze seemed distant, as if focused on a certain spot in the sky. “The roof of our house collapsed under the weight of the snow, and I came home late. Then I got beaten.”

Gu Jiahe lowered his head and smiled wryly. “It was also my fault for being stupid. I was in so much pain that I applied the medicinal oil too early, and as a result, it became even more swollen and painful overnight. I had to rush to the emergency room in the middle of the night.”

The brief line in the medical record represented countless embarrassing moments in Gu Jiahe’s life.

“Let’s not talk about these things.” he shook his head.

But Li Zhao seemed unwilling to stop questioning. “Your mother… When did she pass away?”

“On May 1st.” Gu Jiahe answered softly.

May 1st. In Li Zhao’s memory, that day was when they had their first decent “date” and watched their first movie together.

“So, that’s why you were in the swimming pool later…” Li Zhao finally connected all these pieces together, his throat feeling a little dry.

“It’s okay. Thanks to you for saving me, otherwise I might really have drowned. Haha.” Gu Jiahe’s eyes curved, as if he were talking about someone else’s story.

Li Zhao took a deep breath. “Why didn’t you tell anyone else?”

Gu Jiahe answered softly, “There’s no point in telling. I just didn’t want to.”

All along, Gu Jiahe knew that as long as he didn’t leave Pingcheng, he could never escape this kind of life. Talking to anyone else would only add to their troubles, with no other purpose.

There was silence between the two for about two minutes.

Li Zhao looked up at the snowflakes falling on the glass roof. The snow was getting heavier, obscuring the sky, making it impossible to distinguish whether it was day or night.

“Jiahe,” Li Zhao suddenly spoke up.

“Yeah?” Gu Jiahe raised his head to look at him.

But Li Zhao didn’t continue.

Three seconds later, Gu Jiahe reacted. This was the first time Li Zhao had called him “Jiahe” in so long.

Instead of using his full name.