Woman In Irish Linen Shirt

Chapter 39:

I had the flu once in college.

It was the summer vacation before the junior year, and my mother’s affairs were unfolding, and they wouldn’t let me go back to China. The teacher in charge of international students agreed that I would stay in the dormitory, and the local classmates drove my car around 14 states. After I came back, I became ill. People who rarely got sick in the past don’t know what the flu is like, and the most uncomfortable two days are the sadness of spring and autumn. In the end, Qu Zhizhi couldn’t see it. After he was cured, I ran across Massachusetts and made a project. I became a guinea pig for her.

The paper was not published in the end, and I failed to do as she wished, so I cheered up.

The Yangjian Difu are all similar, only when drifting in a foreign land.

My whole body hurts, and I woke up in the chorus. The wide safari truck smelled of wood in the back, and I was so uncomfortable that I rolled the window to the bottom.

“Yao, the window is closed!” Lao Bai shouted at me into the rearview mirror.

“No,” I categorically refused, “I’m going to throw up.”

“I can’t hear anymore—”

“No!” Vivian opened her hand that wanted to twist the volume, “Yao, close the window!”

“When it’s closed, I’ll throw you up in the car.” I panted with one arm resting on the window, “I’ve heard this song a thousand times, what’s so nice about it.”

They are singing “PleaseReadTheLetter”. Lao Bai is a big fan of the airship band. On the way, I was forced to listen to the album of former lead singer Robert Plante and Alison Krauss. Originally, I didn’t catch a cold with male and female choruses. Not bad. It’s just that Vivienne wants to repeat the single song, no matter how good it sounds, it makes her ears callous.

Lao Bai is still singing along. She would only be able to chorus the chorus and run out of tune. I served her.

“You don’t understand bluegrass music at all, you are a fake American.” Old Bai said.

“Fuck you, I’m not an American at all.” After I said that, I felt sick again, holding the window and retching for a while. When I looked up, I saw the block sign, and I woke up suddenly: “Vivian, why did you enter 407?”

“Damn it.”

“Go back and go back!”

“Why?” Vivian slapped Lao Bai’s hat, “I said that we will leave one day later and let Yao drive. Now we are all right, and we are on the toll road.”

My chattering stopped, and said slowly: “I’m so drunk that you still want me to drive?”

“Ha, it seems that you are the only one who has drunk!” Vivian looked at me through the rearview mirror with some worry in her eyes, “Let’s sleep a little longer, and wake you up when you pass the test.”

“Or call you when I get to New York.” Old Bai said leisurely, “You hide.”

“Get out!” I made a gesture to hit her, and the window shook up, leaving only a gap. At this time, the single looped to the one thousand and one time. In order to drink a legal drink, on the way back from Toronto to Northampton, Vivienne and Lao Bai began to sing again: “Please read I nailed you The letter on the door makes people foolish, we want more than this…”

What a lullaby, my eyelids are getting heavier and heavier. The head fell into a void, and I sprang up, Vivienne took the wrong path again?

When I opened my eyes, I was standing on a high diving platform. The pool was very small, like an upper-class private pool. The two bad friends who traveled around North America together disappeared. Only Qu Zhizhi stood far away, wearing a doctor’s hat and a Harvard hoodie, shouting: “Li Yao, come down quickly! Danger! You can’t stand, come down!”

“No!” My calf trembled, but I still didn’t take a step back, and shouted at her, “I’m going to Hamburg!”

“What are you going to do in Hamburg!”

“I’ll save my mother, she won’t want me if I don’t go to Hamburg!” Thinking of my mother, I immediately made my determination, took a step forward, and took a deep breath.

I’m going to jump, I’m going to jump, I’m going to jump…

“Oh, your mother is next to me, come down!” Qu Zhizhi greeted me, “Aren’t we going to get a Ph.D. in humanities together? You jumped from there and broke your leg. Then there is no museum for you!”

I waved at Qu Zhizhi like a hero, and jumped down violently. It turned out to be just a three-meter diving platform. I stepped on the water-the water was so slippery, I slipped to the pool like sitting on jelly. Zhizhi was still watching, my mother only left her back, and she was getting farther and farther away. I rushed up, and the result became slower and slower. My legs were sealed in the concrete floor, but the touch felt like mud. I was confident that I could break free, and the result became deeper and deeper.

My mother turned around. She was skinny and skinny. How could this be?

I don’t know where I struggled to reach her feet. My mother lowered her head and looked at me tenderly: “We Yao Yao really grew up.”

The cement floor suddenly turned into a sea of flames, and in the sea of flames, my blood and tears were all scorched, and it became a vigorous snake staring at me.

The viper rang.

I clamped its head to my ear: “This is Li Yao from Boston of Agency A talking. Is there anything I can help you with?”

The snake’s silence did not last long, and he opened his mouth and said, “Which floor do you live?”

“Fourteenth floor.” I heard her voice and said, “I bought you a beautiful dress…”

My voice is low, almost acting like a baby.

“Yao.” She called me. She called again for the third and fourth time, until I answered, she asked again: “Are you awake?”

I sit up.

Miss Pan De.

“Uh-yes, I’m sorry.” I held my forehead, my head didn’t hurt anymore, but my body was very soft, “What were we talking about?”

“You live in A on the fourteenth floor, right?” She avoided answering.

I subconsciously responded, and before I had time to follow up, I only heard her drop “Open the door for me” and the phone was hung up.

Has she arrived at my house? I frowned, a sour smell on my body, so I took off my T-shirt. But such a simple thing is also very difficult to complete, every piece of meat hurts, especially on the back, the muscles seem to be burning. I leaned against the head of the bed, panting, reached for a rumpled shirt and took my temperature.

36.2℃, the fever has gone.

About Saturday morning, I started to have a fever. The two days passed in a daze, seldom ate food, and probably didn’t wash much. Now it’s too late to take a shower, and I’m not sure if I have the strength to take a shower. I hurriedly put on my clothes, cleaned up the mess in the living room, and the doorbell rang.

“This is Sonia. Are you in there?”

“Yes.” I answered her loudly, “Thank you for coming to see me, but I can’t open the door for you.”

The doorbell didn’t ring again, and she fell silent. My throat really hurts so much. I supported the wall and walked to the door, just about to explain, Miss Pan De’s voice suddenly sounded: “Did you have close contact with anyone without a mask during this period of time?”

I slowly cleared my throat: “No, not in the past fourteen days.”

“Have you been to those places where clusters of cases broke out?”

“no.”

“Do you feel chest tightness or difficulty breathing?”

“no.”

“Open the door for me.”

“No!” I coughed dry for a while, barely able to continue talking, “I have fatigue and sore limbs, and I had a fever the day before yesterday. That’s why I took leave today.”

There was a moment of silence at the door, and Miss Pande’s voice resounded again: “Today is Tuesday.”

I froze for a moment. Monday has passed? Then the conference is over, why didn’t Huang call me and tell me how the details of the optimization framework are handled? I touched my pants. Of course, I didn’t have a mobile phone. I just put it on the bedside and forgot to take it. I said, “I’m getting better, and I should be able to work soon. Thank you so much for coming here to visit me—”

“Open the door.”

“I can’t prescribe.” I sighed. “I’m not sure if I have the flu or COVID. I will make an appointment with the doctor for a test later…Well, why are you here?”

“Let me see you at least.” She spoke mild and firm, but she turned a deaf ear to what I said, “I would be very worried if I didn’t see you, and Rudra also told me to see you in person. You. If you don’t open the door anymore, the administrator in the lobby might have to come to drive me…”

“Rudra?” My brain seemed to be burning, my thinking was slow, I couldn’t argue with her at all. After a pause, I said: “Wait.” Then I put on the mask, buttoned the top hat, and hid the garbage deep in the kitchen. At this time, I saw the rubber gloves on the countertop and put them on. On it.

Pushing the windows of the living room completely open, I shouted at the door: “You open it, I didn’t lock it.”

It really is Miss Pan De.

I drank her: “Stop.”

“Okay.” She paused in her forward footsteps. Miss Pan De tilted her head, her expression hesitated for a moment, and finally smiled and said, “Why are you wearing a hat?”

“I didn’t wash my hair.” I was a little embarrassed, “Do you mind wearing another mask?”

“That won’t help more.” She smiled undiminished. “Then why are you wearing gloves? You didn’t wash your hands?”

I was amused by her. I coughed twice while holding on to the window. I barely stood up straight and said: “I just read the report that the medical staff are fully armed, and I think it’s better.”

She made a gesture: “Not a pair of sunglasses.”

“You’re right.” I couldn’t help laughing. “I’m so sorry, the first time you came, I couldn’t entertain you—you, um, why did you come? I was very surprised.”

Although the part that says “hi” is open to discussion.

“During the meeting, they said you asked for leave. I asked Rudra privately. I heard that they didn’t contact you and didn’t know your new address.” Miss Pande blinked, “Plus I want to confirm You are okay. I thought many people knew you lived here.”

“I just moved here not long ago, and I haven’t had time yet.” My feet are a little bit empty, but my mind is slowly clearing up, remembering what I said in a daze when I answered her phone, and now I am standing in front of the window so sloppyly. The toes curled up in embarrassment.

Her style is as usual. Compared to my nondescript, wrinkled shirt and ball-shaped track pants, Miss Pande is as refined as the real owner of this apartment.

She carried a plastic bag with a smiley face in her hand, which was incompatible with suits, as if she was reminding me: this one who is facing me with concerns hidden between her eyebrows is not a partner of BCG Singapore, nor is it my opponent. She just stayed on the bottom line and couldn’t help but broke into my door. One day, when the situation is safe, she will approach me.

Sonia Pande is caring about me.

Why?

I was confused and changed the subject: “I’m curious, why did the administrator let you in?”

“I said you are my sister.” She has no guilt for lying, her eyes are smiling.