After the bell rang, the physics teachers extended class for a little while before finishing. As soon as the teacher left, the second class left school with cheers. Some made plans to go to the arcade to play games. Others asked to go to the milk tea shop to do homework. The students all started to leave the classroom one after another.
Ji Rang's face was gloomy as he stood at the corner of the corridor. Other students did not dare to walk toward him and detoured using the other side of the stairs.
Qi Ying hadn't gone out yet so it was likely that she was waiting for Yu Yue obediently in the room.
He stared at the front door of her class, raised his foot several times before retracting it repeatedly.
What exactly are you doing???
Getting confessed to? Why do I have to run when I see you???
Explain the misunderstanding that she saw? That Xue Manqing and I have nothing???
Is he really conceited enough to say this to a little girl who can't hear? He has nothing to do with her!! He doesn't even have her contact information!
Definitely ate too many buns at noon today!
He scolded himself for the stupid things in his heart, turned his head calmly and planned to leave.
The back door of the half-closed classroom was pushed open and Qi Ying came out with her schoolbag on her back, still carrying her shoulder straps while walking.
Ji Rang was caught off guard and had a face-to-face meeting with her, and he was too late to take off so he froze. When Qi Ying saw him, her eyes lit up first and the smile on the corner of her lips were full of sweetness, but in the next moment, who knows what happened but the pair of feet that wanted to run towards him stopped again.
Still smiling, but gathering her thoughts, she revealed the timidity of when they first met.
Ji Rang suddenly felt upset, gritted his teeth and said, "You come to Lao Tzu"
Qi Ying read his words and thought that the general should be very angry at the moment.
Was it before she always inexplicably bothered him?
She lowered her eyes sadly and thought about it for a while, and thought it was better for her to leave his sight as soon as possible without annoying him.
Then Ji Rang saw the little girl, who was always smiling sweetly gather tears in the corner of her eyes, turn around slightly.
Ji Rang stayed in place, his expression was stiff and hard, waited until Qi Ying walked to the front of the staircase before finally reacting. He took a few steps forwards with long legs and rushed to grab her wrist.
Qi Ying turned her head, squinting slightly with a look of injustice and forbearance.
His fingers were cold and his throat seemed to be blocked: "Lao… I'm not trying to kill you…" Ji Rang felt his temple suddenly hurt, and he bit his tongue sharply. The pain helped him regain focus. "Is it ok to take you to get strawberry pudding?"
Qi Ying looked at him blankly.
He repeated two words: "Strawberry. Pudding."
She finally understood, smiled, and nodded obediently.
…
This time, they changed dessert shops and went to the one right behind the school.
He asked for a strawberry pudding and paid for it. Qi Ying stood next to him and looked at the sweet desserts in the glass displays.
She had never eaten them, she wanted them.
She felt that since she had eaten strawberry pudding last time, she wanted to change her taste this time. Tugging at Ji Rang's shirt, she pointed at a fancy mango mousse and signaled that she wanted to change to that one.
In the end, Ji Rang didn't agree and fiercely looked at her: "Don't be half-hearted about the things you like!" He stuffed the strawberry pudding into her hands: "Eat!"
Qi Ying was not angry, after all, strawberry pudding was also delicious.
She finished eating after two or three mouthfuls, took out pocket money from her schoolbag, and ran over pointing at the mango mousse, and motioned for the clerk to help her.
The clerk was about to walk over when Ji Rang, sitting in his set, said gloomily: "No sales to her."
Who didn't know Ji Rang?
The clerk did not dare to disobey and deceived Qi Ying: "These are reserved by another customer and can't be sold."
She was a little disappointed, held the bill in her hand and looked left and right before happily pointing at a matcha cake and blinked at the clerk.
The clerk had no spoken yet but heard the voice of the boss say coldly: "Tell her that except for strawberry pudding, nothing else is sold."
Clerk: "…"
Brother, isn't it bad to bully a deaf person like this?
Despite the defamation he spoke on the inside, the clerk could only follow suit. The clerk expressed regret and conveyed Ji Rang's words with guilt.
Qi Ying was a little surprised that she would encounter such a situation, but she assumed that the dessert shop was doing well and walked back with twenty dollars.
Ji Rang played with his cell phone and watched her sit down, his eyes faintly held a smile before it disappeared.
Qi Ying looked at him for a while with her chin on both hands and when she saw that he was not talking, she just leaned back against the chair and played with her phone.
Ji Rang glanced at her screen, uncomfortably moved and changed his posture.
He couldn't say that he came to settle accounts with her, right?
He was silent for a while, in Qi Ying's curious eyes, with an expressionless face: I'm asking to do homework together.
Qi Ying bent her eyes, happily took out the homework to be done for the day from her schoolbag, and spread them on the table, then looked at him with anticipation.
Every day in class, there would be classmates who went to the tea shops and cafes to do homework. She hadn't gone with anyone yet, but never expected that the first person who asked her would be the general!
Ji Rang: …
He pulled his schoolbag over slowly and glanced inside.
There was only a pack of cigarettes, a lighter, a charger, half a bottle of coke, and a high school math book from some unknown year and month.
Could only take out the math book.
Turned it around and read a few pages.
What sine function is cosine? What is cos, sin, tan, f(x)? Is this a math book or an English book?!
The boss who wanted to pretend to write a few problems couldn't even write.
The point was that he had no pen either.
Opposite him, Qi Ying took out a stationary box, a pink cloth bag with a while rabbit embroidered on it. Even the pens inside were cute, having things like blue whales on them.
She wrote several multiple-choice questions and saw Ji Rang staring at the book in the same posture as before and crooked her head curiously.
Ji Rang noticed her gaze and stretched out his hand daringly: borrow a pen.
Qi Ying suddenly realized and pushed the stationary box over.
He stretched the pen case open with two fingers, looked around and picked a pink whale topped gel pen.
Started writing on brand new math books.
He drew a little girl with a ponytail and a strawberry. He wanted to draw a little girl eating a strawberry. Unfortunately, he couldn't do it and gave up.
When writing a short-answer question, Qi Ying's phone that was resting on the table vibrated. Yu Yue sent a message: Sister, where have you been? Didn't I tell you to wait for me in the classroom? Don't just run around!
Qi Ying knew that Yu Yue didn't like Ji Rang so she didn't tell the truth: I went to drink milk tea at Qilixiang.
Yu Yue: Oh, then wait for me, I'll come right away! Buy me a cup of green milk tea, less sugar, and get it a little bigger ah!
Ji Rang's phone rang and after answering, Qu Dazhuang shouted, "The seventh class teacher suddenly came over and that kid, Yu Yue ran away! But it's already been half an hour…"
Ji Rang glanced at Qi Ying who was replying and said coldly, "I see."
He hung up the phone and saw Qi Ying writing in her notebook before handing it over to him.
Her handwriting was just as good as her: My brother is here to pick me up, I'm leaving.
Ji Rang nodded slightly.
She wrote again: Can I do my homework with you next time?
Digging his own grave and jumping inside, he continued to nod.
Qi Ying smiled sweetly at him and began to pack her schoolbag. He held her pink whale pen and did not return it to her before stuffing his bag with the math notebook.
After leaving the dessert shop, Qi Ying went to Qilixiang next door to buy milk tea for Yu Yue.
When she showed the clerk her request for the order, she looked back and Ji Rang had already left. His schoolbag was slanted, his pace lazy and the school uniform wasn't neat, but his back was straight.
Qi Ying held her hot milk tea and waved towards his back.
…
It was the peak hour where cars were coming and going in front of the school where parents were waiting to pick up their children. Yu Yue flew through the crowd with his schoolbag and ran towards Qilixiang.
Someone's horn at the intersection was blowing loudly.
A white Volkswagen stopped at the main road and blocked the intersection. The owner was a middle-aged man. He stuck his head out from the driver-side window and yelled towards the small shop not far away: "Hurry up! How long does it take to buy a drink?!"
The fat little boy in front of the store was paying for a bottle of soda, "I'm coming now!"
The black car blocked by him continued to honk.
Seeing that he didn't move, the car headed to the right and drove past the violation zone being monitored by cameras. Driving to the front, the window was slowly lowered and a chilling female voice came out: "Don't stop here! Don't drive to avoid harming people!"
The middle-aged man was scolded by her and didn't speak until the car moved forward and he spit out the window, cursing: "Just you stop then! It's all public roads, what's wrong with my driving?"
Another driver who was blocked by him and was already dissatisfied could not help but sneer: "Don't make fun of them, that car, they could buy ten of yours."
Middle-aged man: …
Yu Yue was jumping over the railing next to the sidewalk, intending to take a short-cut when he suddenly heard someone on the side of the road shout: "Hey, kid!"
He turned a deaf ear and just crossed one leg ahead when the voice shouted again: "The kid in the red Adidas!"
Wearing red Adidas? Isn't that only him?
Yu Yue tilted his head and saw a black car parked on the side of the road. A pretty short-haired girl sat in the driver's seat and waved at him.
Yu Yue hesitated and pointed at himself, she nodded.
He glanced at his hurdling leg, retracted it silently and coughed, "Do we know each other?"
The short-haired girl smiled and her eyebrows narrows, her eyes were long and revealed a cold and pretty feeling, "I've seen you. Do you know Ji Rang?"
Yu Yue became more and more tense, watching her silently.
She smiled again, turned around, took an envelope from the passenger seat, and handed it to him. "Can I trouble you to pass this to Ji Rang?"
Yu Yue frowned: "I'm not familiar with him, why don't you give it to him yourself?"
Ji Ran also smiled and raised the letter in her hand: "Child, do something for this sister."
The smile was so beautiful that as long as he was a boy, he couldn't refuse.
Yu Yue reached out to take it, repeating himself again: "First, I declare that I am not familiar with him and may not be able to deliver it. Even if it is given to him, he may not take it."
Ji Ran smiled, "I know," thanked him and drove away slowly.
Yu Yue looked down at the unsealed envelope and tucked it into his schoolbag. When he reached Qilixiang, Qi Ying stood at the door with milk tea and waved when she saw him.
After a sip of milk tea, Yu Yue complained: "Why is it hot? I wanted to drink iced." But she bought it already and he didn't plan to exchange it so he took Qi Ying to the bus stop.
After getting on the car, he sent a message to Qi Ying: Sister, I told you Ji Rang is definitely not a simple person.
Qi Ying: …
Yu Yue said that a beautiful girl dragged him over to send a love letter and said: He is simply a scumbag who plays with other's emotions!
Qi Ying was a little angry: Maybe it's something important, you don't have to guess what it is yourself.
Yu Yue: Then why did he have someone hold me back? Does he not dare to face me?
Qi Ying: If you say any more, I'm telling you that you are going to fight with someone again today.
Yu Yue: ???
Qi Ying pointed at his elbow.
There was a gray patch where he had clashed with Qu Dazhuang in the classroom, and a bit of of skin with scratched. Yu Yue marveled at his sister's insight and shut up silently.
After arriving home, Wu Yinghua who had prepared the meal already, took the two children's bags and told them to wash their hands.
Yu Yue's bag zipper was only half closed and while on the bed, an envelope fell out.
Wu Yinghua picked it up curiously. The envelope was not sealed. She opened it and looked.
It was a photo.
A gentle-looking woman, holding a child about one or two years old, a Mickey Mouse balloon in her hand, smiled at the camera.
The date printed on the bottom corner: Taken in 2000.