Chapter 51#
Lost in the Wind and Snow#
The moment he stepped off the plane, Mo Xuzhi felt something cold land on the top of his head.
It was a snowflake.
The snowflake was very small and melted as soon as it landed on his head.
Mo Xuzhi looked up and saw more white snowflakes falling from the light gray sky, fluttering down.
“Don’t look anymore. Let’s get to the hotel first. You’ll catch a cold if you wait any longer.”
Something pressed down on his hair. Mo Xuzhi looked up and saw Wang Zhifeng’s hand resting on his head.
Mo Xuzhi withdrew his gaze.
The people sent by the local bureau to pick them up were already waiting at the airport. After seeing them, they called the driver.
This exchange meeting lasted for two days, and the organizer provided food and lodging. After Wang Zhifeng arrived at the hotel, he left with the people called by the organizer. After negotiation, the special protection personnel assigned from above also followed Wang Zhifeng.
Mo Xuzhi stayed in the hotel. There was a thick carpet in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows. With no one else around, he sat directly on the carpet and turned his head to look out the window.
The snow was still falling steadily.
The weather forecast said that due to its special geographical location and surface morphology, Rongcheng was very likely to experience heavy snow.
Looking at the thick clouds in the sky, Mo Xuzhi felt that this weather forecast should be accurate.
He hadn’t seen heavy snow many times.
Before being hit by the truck and coming to this world, he lived in the south and only saw snow that could barely cover a thin layer when he was very young.
Later, when he went to the Institute of Technology located in the north, his colleagues said that it would snow very, very heavily in winter. The snow would cover everything, and it would be so thick that a pit would appear with one step.
He was also looking forward to it. As a southerner, his yearning for this rare weather had existed since he was a child.
In October, he was selected for the Peiji Plan and entered the closed laboratory ahead of schedule.
When the sky was full of heavy snow, he didn’t get to see it.
It was just a pity. If there hadn’t been that unexpected accident, although he couldn’t see the heavy snow in the north, he could at least see the colleagues who had worked hard together for two years stand on the podium and receive praise and bonuses.
They had already agreed when they went out that the money would be used to buy machines, and the rest would be used for a team-building trip for the selected participants. The location had also been chosen—in the south, a place with very beautiful scenery.
The snow gradually became heavier.
The floor Mo Xuzhi was on was very high. He looked down and saw that a thin layer of snow had already accumulated on the ground.
Luo Wenyun gave him a call.
Mo Xuzhi casually turned on the TV, and the sound of the news was instantly released.
Mo Xuzhi looked down at the pedestrians below opening their umbrellas and asked: “Something up?”
“Nothing much.”
Hearing the sound of the TV from the other person’s phone, the sense of unease in Wang Zhifeng’s heart lessened slightly.
I’m thinking too much.
Luo Wenyun smiled and said: “Where are you now?”
“In my room.”
“The money has already been transferred to you. After you post the statement, don’t look at the comments anymore. There’s nothing good to see—definitely don’t look, remember?”
“Mm.”
“I hear the sound on your side. Watching the news?”
“Mm.”
“I heard the snow in Guwu District, A City, is very beautiful. Let’s go together tomorrow. The fruit wine there is also not bad.”
Mo Xuzhi put his phone on the table and started to put on his coat. He didn’t care what Luo Wenyun was saying and only responded casually.
Perhaps sensing Mo Xuzhi’s perfunctoriness, or perhaps having obtained the answer he wanted, Luo Wenyun didn’t try to strike up a conversation again and hung up the phone.
Mo Xuzhi began to put on a mask.
In the short time it took to put on a mask, someone else sent him a string of messages.
It was Xue Feng.
Since their brief meeting last time, he hadn’t bumped into him or had any contact.
As if catching a ride, these people all rushed to send him messages today.
Xue Feng seemed quite idle. At this time, which should be working hours, he sent a series of pictures—all kinds of watches or jewelry. One look and you knew they were definitely not cheap.
He asked him if there was anything he liked.
This time, Mo Xuzhi didn’t just randomly pick one to get it over with like before.
[Mo Xuzhi: I don’t like jewelry. There’s a gift for you in the house at Xinghai Community.]
He sent another message to Wang Zhifeng saying he was going out to see the snow, and after sending it, Mo Xuzhi put his phone in his pocket.
He left the hotel and happened to encounter a taxi.
In just the short distance of a dozen meters from the hotel entrance to the roadside, by the time Mo Xuzhi got into the car, his whole body couldn’t stop shaking.
It wasn’t because of the cold, but because it was too painful.
He could feel that his lungs had begun to swell, and perhaps there was also fluid accumulation.
This far exceeded the normal range. His lungs felt like they were about to burst, causing extreme pain.
He removed his mask with shaking hands, took out two pills from his clothes, and swallowed them.
The driver looked at the young man’s face in the rearview mirror, always feeling that he had seen this face somewhere before.
He hadn’t looked a few more times when Mo Xuzhi put his mask back on after taking the medicine.
The driver saw him shaking so violently that he turned on the heater and asked: “Where to, student?”
“Thank you. To Linhai Shiyuan.”
Sensing the gradually warming air, Mo Xuzhi reflexively thanked him, then looked to both sides and found that there were only himself and the driver in the car.
Was that “student” calling him?
“What are you going there for, student?” the driver added. “That place usually looks good, but it’s not suitable to go there during heavy snow like today. Anyway, there’s snow all over the city. Where can’t you see it?”
Mo Xuzhi nodded with a smile but still didn’t change his destination.
This student had quite a stubborn temper.
The driver glanced at the road conditions ahead and let the wipers move a few times to brush away the snow that had melted into water droplets on the glass. He said: “After I finish your order, I won’t continue to pick up people today. You can still see the road now, but by the time you can’t even see the road, you’ll even lose yourself. Student, be careful over there too. If you find the snow getting heavy, leave immediately.”
No one would want to cut off their own source of income. The driver just mentioned it in passing and didn’t say much more after that.
Mo Xuzhi didn’t reply this time. He curled up in a corner of the back seat, looking as if he had fallen asleep. It wasn’t polite for the driver to keep looking at others through the rearview mirror, so he didn’t notice his constantly trembling hands.
Linhai Shiyuan was close to the outskirts of the city, quite far away. Combined with the snow today, all the drivers were afraid of skidding and drove much slower. From the hotel to Shiyuan, it took a total of more than thirty minutes.
The driver stopped the car. He had originally wanted to wake up the sleeping guest, but unexpectedly, as soon as the car stopped and he turned his head, he saw the young man open his eyes almost at the same time.
His eyes were very red and shone with startling brightness. Hidden under his broken hair that was mostly wet with sweat, they gave a very strange sense of opposition, looking even more alarming.
So he hadn’t fallen asleep.
While the driver was dazed, Mo Xuzhi leaned his body against the back of the front seat and then reached out to scan the QR code. He paid the fare and scanned an extra hundred yuan.
“Cough… Sorry, the car… got wet. Please wipe it, Uncle. Very sorry.”
The driver watched Mo Xuzhi get out of the car, then turned his head and saw that the color of the backrest where he had been sitting was much darker than in other places.
He remembered the young man’s broken hair wet with sweat that he had seen before.
How much sweat must that be?
The driver quickly opened the car window and looked in the direction where the passenger had just left.
Except for the wind and snow, the line of sight was blank.
That person had already disappeared into the wind and snow.