The boy walked over and kicked the gate open with his foot, causing it to creak and open in two directions. Ignoring Jiang Lingzhi who was behind him, he headed straight inside.
Jiang Lingzhi was stunned, and she still had not recovered from the shock of seeing him open the door violently. She paused for a while before carefully following him into the courtyard.
With a hand in his pocket, Li Shunan pointed to the water tap next to the courtyard and picked up a chair, which he then sat on lazily. "There is a tap there."
Jiang Lingzhi looked in the direction that he pointed and saw that there was indeed a pool with a tap next to the courtyard.
It was Jiang Lingzhi's first time being in such a place. The house was a little old, but it had the charm of a vintage residence on an old street.
She looked down at herself, placed her backpack on another chair, and walked to the tap to briefly wash her skirt.
There was a slight, stinging pain in the abrasion on her knee. It bled a little just now, but the blood had already dried up.
She tried her best to remove as much of the bloodstain as possible. It was still rather difficult to wash everything off.
During the entire process, Li Shunan had been watching coldly from the side and leaning against his chair with a cigarette in his mouth. Wisps of smoke spiraled out of the cigarette.
He made it seem extremely natural.
After cleaning up, Jiang Lingzhi turned off the tap and took a look at the courtyard, the lights in the main house were switched on, but it was dark in the other two houses beside it. She walked towards the chair that her backpack was placed on. At this moment, she finally came to a realization. "Is this your home?"
"Duh?" Li Shunan looked down and tilted his head to look at the wound on her knee.
Jiang Lingzhi followed his line of sight and said, "I just scraped it accidentally. I'll go home to dress my wound."
"Okay," Li Shunan answered as he took another puff of his cigarette, seemingly thinking about something. Without saying anything more, he stood up and said, "Since you're done, I'll walk you out."
Jiang Lingzhi nodded and picked up her backpack. However, she suddenly remembered something and took out the 400 yuan that she had placed in her backpack for a long time. She handed it to him and said, "Oh right, I'm returning the money to you."
After saying that, she added softly, "I'm really not a swindler."
Li Shunan looked down and glanced at her fair and thin fingers. He lowered his head and chuckled. "You are quite persistent, little kid."
With her hand still hovering in midair, Jiang Lingzhi corrected him, "I'm not a little kid."
Li Shunan raised his eyebrows without making any comment. Biting the cigarette between his thin lips, he chuckled softly and said, "I was just kidding, you don't have to compensate me."
He didn't really think she was a swindler either, but she had surprisingly taken his words seriously.
He furrowed his eyebrows for a moment and seemed to be thinking about something before he said slowly and deliberately, "Sit down, I'll walk you out after getting your wound dressed."
He had been showing sympathy to her time and time again, perhaps because he was overwhelmed with fatigue.
Yet, she did not have any sense of danger at all. She did not seem to keep her guard up while following a stranger home.
Li Shunan blew out a puff of smoke and threw his cigarette onto the ground to snub it.
Jiang Lingzhi blinked while clutching the 400 yuan in her hand and stared at the straight back of the tall boy, watching him head straight into the house.
She looked to the side twice and placed the 400 yuan on the chair next to her.
Even though he said that she didn't have to pay him back, it concerned her reputation, so she had to return the money to him!
Her cellphone began ringing in her schoolbag.
Jiang Lingzhi took out her cellphone and took a look to see that it was a call from her mother. She knew that she was probably going to be scolded again since it was already so late. Her hand trembled, perhaps because she was nervous, and she accidentally pressed the button to end the call.
Jiang Lingzhi thought to herself speechlessly, 'It's over for me.'