Toward the Other Side

In theory, when a young man like Chen Man is going to live in another country for a long time, his family and friends should get together and hold a farewell party or something.

But Chen Man left so quickly that even his parents were caught off guard, and no one else was prepared.

The farewell party could not be organized, so some relatives and friends of the Chen family, as well as political and business partners, sent people to see off the plane.

"This is a small token of our appreciation, take it, and take good care of yourself when you get to Canton."

"Slowly brother, have a safe trip!"

The mother was busy stopping her young daughter's babbling greetings and taught, "When people fly on airplanes, you have to say have a safe trip, not a safe journey, understand?"

The little girl scratched her head, revealing her milk teeth, and said, "Yes, brother, take your time, and have a safe trip."

Chen Man thanked them one by one and said goodbye to these people, he hugged his mother who was crying into tears, "Mom, it's fine, don't worry. I will check in with you regularly."

Chen's mother was still speechless.

Chen father sighed: "good end, have to go to what field, to go to be what the first line of criminal police, how to persuade can not persuade, your grandfather yesterday almost did not scold us blood, if not today Yanzhou has an important cadres meeting he has to attend, he must have already flown to here to train you. ...... Alas, forget it, it is useless to say too much, you take care of yourself."

Chen Man nodded.

There were many people who came to say goodbye, familiar and unfamiliar, there were all of them. Chen Man's eyes skimmed over these people, as if waiting for someone to appear, but the time for boarding was almost up, and that person was still nowhere to be seen.

Chen Man's eyes gradually revealed a disappointment that was hard to hide.

"Well, go ahead. Call us when you arrive." Father Chen said.

Chen Man nodded, took his ticket, and turned around, ready to leave.

And yet just then--

"Chen Yan."

Chen Man, as if touched by an electric current, trembled and suddenly looked around.

A familiar, tall figure appeared in the crowd at the airport, Xie Qingcheng, wearing a pale lotus root-colored shirt and anthracite suit pants, his hands in his pockets, walking slowly toward him.

Chen Man, as if in a dream, murmured, "Brother Xie ......"

Xie Qingcheng walked to him, stood still, and handed him a red envelope, "...... other no longer say anything more."

"Brother ......"

"Now that you've made your decision, let's make this path a good one. This is my accompanying gift to you, wishing you a new start in another city."

Under the eyes of the public, Chen Man didn't dare to show too much, only his trembling fingers when he received the red packet revealed the ups and downs of his mood at the moment.

He took the red envelope, which had the familiar timeless hard penmanship on it.

"Peace."

With only two simple words like this, Chen Man's vision blurred a bit.

Xie Qingcheng didn't expect much from him, he only hoped that Chen Man would be safe and sound in Guangcheng. Chen Man received the red envelope with both hands, and Xie Qingcheng said, "Open it when no one is around."

Although it was not clear why he asked, Chen Man agreed.

Xie Qingcheng finally looked at him fixedly for a few seconds, as if there were still some words he wanted to say to him, yet because of what had already happened between them, in the end, those words still didn't come out of his mouth.

That's when the airport's airplane check-in announcement went off, and Chen Man snapped back to his senses and whispered, "Brother, thank you for still coming to see me off today."

Xie Qingcheng patted his shoulder, "Let's go."

Chen Man went through security.

Chen's father and mother thanked the guests, but Chen's father was a bit cold towards Xie Qingcheng - although Chen Lisheng's death was not directly related to Xie's family, in Chen's father's opinion, Chen Lisheng was sacrificed for the sake of justice and truth for Xie's family.

Xie Qingcheng didn't care either, he finished sending Chen Man off and left the crowd on his own.

"Hey, did you guys just see that? That's Xie Xue's brother."

"Which one?"

"The one who showed up at the end to give Chen Yan a red envelope, very tall, quite handsome."

When Xie Qingcheng was leaving the airport, he stopped by a convenience store to buy a cup of coffee, where two rich wives returning from seeing Chen Man off were chatting. They had both heard about the scandalous wedding reception, but one of them had never seen Xie Qingcheng before, so she was happy to listen to the other wife's ramblings.

"Oh my god, it's him? I heard others rumors about him and Master He before, I thought he was the kind of fox charming looks it, that person looks quite decent ah, more manly than my husband, how could he be the kind of man who seduced Master He into bed ...... You are kidding me, right?"

"Who's kidding you, it's him! If you don't believe me, search online, he's been on the social news several times before, and you can still find photos and videos of him online."

The broad lady a search, big drop glasses: "also really he ...... can this person completely can not see is a homosexual ah, I have seen those who are kept male lover, ouch, one by one, the water spirit of oh, than I will also maintain hey! Mr. He This is how it is, to find also find a soft and beautiful."

"You just don't get it." Her girlfriends lowered their voices, whispered, "Now these rich second generation young people are popular to play straight men, or look like straight men of that kind, that only have a sense of conquest, enough stimulation. And I listened to the day witnessed the scene of the bell too said ah, this Professor Xie in that kind of time the voice Oh, aigoo, shall not be le, she is a woman she listened to are ashamed of themselves, no wonder to Mr. He fascinated the head to turn."

"How good can a male voice be, Mrs. Chung's speech is too exaggerated."

"It's not just Mrs. Chung, Mrs. Fan said the same thing, you know Mrs. Fan's taste, she owns the Empty Night Club, she has so many beautiful men under her hand, what hasn't she seen?"

With their backs to him, they were also buying coffee, not realizing that Xie Qingcheng himself was in the airport convenience store.

Such filthy words, and he had no way to stop or defend himself, so he might as well pretend he didn't hear it, and across the board there were quite a lot of filthy words about him, and he had long since gotten used to them.

However, the conversation between the two women was not yet over, and the topic shifted from Xie Qingcheng to He Yu.

"So you're saying Master He's serious about him?"

"It does seem possible to me ......"

"This is outrageous."

"Aiyo, Master He that person, and you are not unaware of it, the entire Shanghai state in the circle of male, he has the most self-esteem, the highest vision, in Xie Qingcheng this matter before, he half a bit of gossip is not, but now actually broke out that he and his former personal doctor had an affair." The broad wife mysteriously lowered her voice and emphasized, "The former private doctor hey, I heard that he has been a doctor in his family for almost ten years, bringing Master He from the age of seven or eight years old, think about it, Mr. He 爷青春期，懵懂发育的时候，都是跟着他的，这里面要说没有点什么脏事，我是不信的。"

"Ouch ......" the other wife sniffed, used her imagination a bit and couldn't help but tsk, "...... This is too much ......"

The voices of the wives got lower and lower, and the talk became more and more licentious: "It's not certain when these two hooked up, maybe Mr. He's adolescent at the moment, and the first time he took it out on this 'private' doctor. The last time I talked to Mrs. Chung about this, she thought they must have been talking for years."

"Still so passionate after so many years of talking, you can't even help but get it on at your sister's wedding reception, you really don't know how to be ashamed."

"Who says it isn't. But if you ask me, no matter how long they've been sneaking around talking before, Master He's kind of going to break up with this doctor lover of his at this point."

The broad perked up her ears, "Oh? What does that say?"

"You don't know? He hasn't been out of the house much lately, and he hasn't gone to see Xie Qingcheng. We all think he's been lectured by his parents, how embarrassing, isn't it? No one dares to talk about that at the wedding banquet, but who wouldn't talk about it behind their backs? He Jiwei and Lv Zhishu have lost face to their eldest son. He Jiwei and Lv Zhishu have disgraced their eldest son. With Lv Zhishu's temperament, it would be strange if she didn't force Master He to break up with the personal doctor."

"When you say it like that it seems really ...... long time no news from the He family."

"Right, to say this circle, playboy is not shame, playboy play man is not too shame, playboy play man result play to the wedding banquet, but also be so many people see a live live ChunHong, that can really call no face, change into me is Lv Zhishu, I also have to and my whole family a piece of hiding."

Xie Qingcheng got more and more annoyed by what he heard, and finished the rest of the refreshing coffee in two gulps, threw the paper cups into the garbage can, and was ready to leave.

Who knew that just then--

"Hey, do you think the Wei family has been stabbed by a villain in this area of marriage? Why do they always get caught up in these kinds of wedding party scandals. When we were young, that Wei Rong was also--"

Xie Qingcheng was surprised, Wei Rong?

He didn't expect to actually hear Wei Rong's name here and immediately stopped in his tracks.

"I'd forgotten if you hadn't told me. It was almost twenty years ago, wasn't it, and I wasn't even married then."

The broad and her girlfriends exclaimed, "I can still remember clearly, that wedding banquet is the most bizarre atmosphere I have ever attended the wedding banquet, it is almost like a funeral. It was like a funeral. Both the bride and groom had the words 'family marriage' written all over their faces. Wei Rong in the ring exchange session, but also the finger ring to get off on the ground, in front of all the guests face plate face personally off the stage to pick up, wipe also do not wipe to Meng Sheng put on."

"And wearing the wrong finger."

"Yeah, the faces of both high houses, yo." Mrs. Cao shook her head, "Tsk, tsk, tsk, it's a vivid memory. Later on, Meng Sheng remarried ah, then all the information related to Wei Rong back then was hidden, he was quite a suffocating husband, right? No wonder the Wei family didn't have the heart to blame him."

"I say that Wei Rong is also funny, I heard that she smacked Meng Sheng ugly, do not look at others, but her own how much beauty? A researcher all day veiled face to face ...... I then especially hate her, at first I also want to be friends with her, think she is also quite poor, but it turned out that her self-esteem is high to death, all day show off their own ability to learn, say we can not read are pig brain. Unlike her, she's a senior student of Shanghai Medical College and a student of Qin Ciyan."

Xie Qingcheng : "!!!"

The broads have finished their coffee, and the two of them cleaned up and got up gracefully, their faces both glowing with the glow of having been nourished by gossip.

"So what if she's a senior student of Shanghai Medical Science, so what if she's a student of Academician Qin, and she's still not accomplishing anything if she's dying to study like that?"

"Go early, I guess, if you go later, with her talent, I'm afraid she's going to get a Nobel Prize."

The two wives seem to be quite disgusted with Wei Rong. Generally speaking, a person's death is important, and it is unlikely that a normal person would disparage a dead person, but when they talked about Wei Rong, they couldn't stop their dislike, and until they walked out of the convenience store with each other, they still hadn't stopped mocking the woman's acerbic and mean-spirited comments.

The convenience store's sensor door closed behind them both.

Xie Qingcheng stood rigidly on the spot, a phrase echoing in his head -

"...... unlike her, a senior at HUMC and a student of Qin Ciyan."

Immediately after he left the airport, he took a car and headed to the Shanghai Medical Records Building, the lead gray city swept past in front of his eyes, between the depressing buildings but through the bright light of the sun, there was a drum beating in his heart, shaking his heart cavity thumping so hard. Xie Qingcheng could vaguely perceive that a certain truth was finally getting closer to him after wandering for so many years.

.

On the airplane.

Chen Man opened the red packet given to him by Xie Qingcheng, and in it, besides the money that signified good luck, an old yellowed greeting card fell out. The card looked familiar, Chen Man slowly opened it, and halfway through reading it, tears moistened his eyes.

That was the greeting card he sent to Xie Qingcheng in the second New Year after his brother left. The tender handwriting of that year has faded, but the whole card was well preserved by Xie Qingcheng.

The old greeting card reads:

Xie Qingcheng brother, thank you for replacing my brother, protecting me and encouraging me, I hope you will always be my brother in the future, and I will always be there for you, Xie Xue and I will always be by your side, and we all need to be happy every day.

Chen Yan

Underneath this age-old, childish text, there is a dark, slightly tilted, brand-new line of handwriting that Xie Qingcheng has just left behind.

"Life is long, the road ahead is precious, no arrogance, no discouragement, wait for the light."

In the end, the child did not always see Xie Qingcheng as his brother, as the greeting card said, and they could not always be happy together.

What you said at ten years old about forever seems like a childish to hilarious joke at twenty.

And at thirty it seems like a wonderful but unreturnable dream.