vision of dawn

Chapter 22

Xi Wenbai woke up from his sleep, and the torrential rain swept in from the night four years ago, soaking his entire back.A vague figure appeared in his unfocused vision, calling out to him with concern and anxiety.Xi Wenbo subconsciously raised his hand to block it, and then realized that it was Anze.

His stiff arm lost strength, pulled the thin quilt up, and wrapped it around the shoulders.

The panting brought by the lingering fear filled the room, compressing the atmosphere to the point of being breathless, Anze tucked the quilt for him, and looked at him silently.

"What time is it..." Xi Wenbo asked awkwardly, his throat was screaming in protest, and he couldn't swallow.

"Seven o'clock in the evening, you slept all afternoon."

"It's seven o'clock."

"Want to drink water?" Anze glanced at the bedside table, the outline of the glass was hidden in the darkness, "It's cold water, I remember you don't drink hot water."

Xi Wenbo shook his head, and sighed out the word "no".

"Maybe you don't know, when you fell asleep, I was always here, Xi Wenbo, I heard you—"

"Anze..." Xi Wenbo's fingertips curled up in the quilt kept trembling, "Stop talking, okay?"

"Drink..." Anze walked over to pick up the cup and handed it to him, "Your voice is hoarse."

Xi Wenbai gave up his insistence, and reached out to take it. Anze was afraid that he would not be able to hold it steadily. He didn't let go until Xi Wenbai brought the rim of the cup close to his lips. He stared at Xi Wenbai and drank half of the cup, "Is it better?"

"Well, thank you."

"Those materials... Do you want to read them later? Or save them until tomorrow?"

"Bring it here." Xi Wenbo rubbed the knot between his eyebrows.

Anze responded, without turning on the light in the room, and walked out the door in the dark, Xi Wenbai put the cup back, and then tasted the salty taste in the corner of his mouth.He put his hands under the quilt, the fire alarm whistling outside the window flashed from the right to the left of the ceiling, Xi Wenbo closed his eyes, as if returning to that rainy night that year.

The time he received a certain call was 25:[-] in the morning, the rainstorm had stopped, and the screen was lit up by an unfamiliar number.Xi Wenbo stared at a string of numbers and forgot to breathe.He didn't answer the call right away, wondering if Liao Liming ran to borrow someone else's cell phone to call him because his cell phone was out of battery, Xi Wenbo couldn't think of any other possibility except this.

The record of this phone call has been kept in Xi Wenbai's cell phone, but he has never found it once.It only took 40 seconds from the time the call was picked up to when it was hung up, but Xi Wenbo felt that he had already completed most of his life.He stood numbly on the street, trying to hail a taxi, but forgot that it was early in the morning. He waited for a long time with dry eyes. Just when he decided to give up and walked home by himself, a bright yellow taxi The taxi broke through the night and came alone.

The headlights illuminated two paths of light, slowly stopping beside him.

Until now, Xi Wenbo still deeply doubts that the appearance of this taxi is a secret arrangement of the little doctor.

The light outside the room was blocked for a moment, Anze walked in with a file box, he put the box beside Xi Wenbai, and turned on the light.

"You have a bad complexion." Anze leaned over to touch his forehead, "Are you feeling okay?"

Xi Wenbai still shook his head, Anze couldn't tell whether he meant "not good" or "don't worry about it".Xi Wenbo moved the box a little closer, and signaled Anze to sit beside him instead of squatting.The documents in the box were stacked very neatly, and they were labeled according to the date. On this point, Anze was always very orderly. Xi Wenbai sighed and rubbed his hair, "Thanks for your hard work."

Xi Wenbai took out the document, and for a moment, he could barely recognize any words, as if they had been scattered and reorganized, floating on the paper in pieces.

The shooting took place not far from their residence, but Xi Wenbo didn't notice it. Maybe the thunder covered up the gunshots, or maybe the gunshots were disguised as thunder. Xi Wenbo tried hard to recall the moment when he was What to do, trying to find the last bit of resonance, but all that was left for him that night was the bruise on his elbow when the door was closed too quickly.Other than that, nothing else.He didn't feel the pain until he walked halfway, and he didn't have time to distract himself from looking at it. With the injury, he found the dawn from midnight, and from the dawn to the morning when the red and blue lights were flashing.Later, exactly a week later, he discovered that the bruises on his elbows were bigger than those from previous injuries, and gradually turned dark purple over time, and it took two months to completely dissipate.

Xi Wenbo read the information quietly, then he scanned a name, his pupils constricted suddenly, he adjusted his breathing, came back, read it again... came back, read it again, until Anze next to him noticed that he was staring at this place For too long, he pushed him gently, trying to stuff his fingers into the fist that was almost clenched into the flesh.

"This man." Xi Wenbo didn't even want to mention his name, "He's dead..."

"Yes……"

"Damn him."

"Yes……"

"Do you want to know how he died?"

Anze opened his eyes wide, "You... decide to tell me?"

"I want to hear your opinion first. I want to hear what you think these years." Xi Wenbo took out another document, "Do you think that I killed him?"

"to be frank."

"Yes..." Anze breathed lightly.

Xi Wenbai smiled sadly, neither affirming nor denying, "So you still chose to follow me, the murderer."

"No, Xi Wenbai, this is different." Anze shook his head firmly, "If it were me, I would make the same choice as you, Liao... Liao Liming, he is a very good person."

"Make the same choice as me." Xi Wenbai looked at him complicatedly, "I can't tell."

"I will do whatever it takes." Anze said gently, "Even you can't imagine what I will do."

Xi Wenbai sighed again, and Anze felt the air became heavy, "I count, you have sighed three times after waking up, the old man said, sighing is sighing life, you should stop soon."

"I can't live—"

Anze covered his mouth, "Don't say such nonsense."

Xi Wenbai stared at him carefully, then closed his eyes to compromise, and then Anze let go.

Except for Xi Wenbai himself, no one knew all the truth about the incident that year. They all thought that he was unwilling to tell the whole story in order to protect them, but no one thought about it, it was because the truth was too painful.

Ten years ago, Xi Wenbai thought the pain was the pain when he was learning to skate when he was a child, and a piece of flesh was gouged off his knee by an ice knife. He cried loudly in the hospital and needed four doctors to hold him down for stitches, but the pain he felt that night , is unable to make any sound.Xi Wenbo still remembered the weight of the blanket when it fell on his shoulders, and the mouth shape of the police officer when he spoke to him, but he opened his mouth and couldn't utter a single word.

"Please answer."

"where were you?"

"Xi?"

Xi Wenbo wanted to say that from midnight to early morning yesterday, he was looking for Liao Liming, and he was going crazy looking for Liao Liming, he almost finished shouting Liao Liming's name all his life.He looked at the police officer and moved his lips, but only two lines of tears fell in silence.

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