Chapter 31
The bell for the end of class rang, and the whole classroom became restless.
“Don’t be in a hurry, let me finish this question!”
The math teacher raised her voice and, amidst a chorus of groans, held up her index finger in a shushing gesture, then turned back to calmly continue writing the solution on the blackboard.
Yan Lu looked at the blackboard, taking notes seriously, when a note was suddenly passed to her from the side.
She took it, looked down, and saw that it was Jian Xin asking her for a decision.
On the last Friday of every month, after the fourth class in the morning, they could go home for the monthly holiday.
During the monthly holiday, the school did not provide food or accommodation, and the school gates would be completely locked. Even students who lived far away would go home.
Yan Lu didn’t like going home. She was afraid of every monthly holiday.
—Do you want to come to my place this time?
Yan Lu looked at Jian Xin’s question and unconsciously tightened her grip on the pen in her hand.
The math teacher was saying something at the blackboard, but she could no longer hear it.
After a brief hesitation, she wrote her reply.
—I’m afraid my dad won’t agree.
—He hits you for no reason. Why do you care if he agrees or not?
Just as the note was passed to Yan Lu, the math teacher’s voice came from the podium, announcing the end of class.
Jian Xin immediately leaned over. “Alright, alright, I know you’re a good girl, and you’re very timid! Why don’t you give him a call and ask? Just say you want to stay at a friend’s house for two days. It’s best if he agrees, and you won’t lose anything if he doesn’t!”
As she spoke, she pushed her phone in front of Yan Lu. “You remember your home number, right?”
Yan Lu picked up the phone, entered a string of numbers, but her hand hesitated to dial.
Jian Xin tilted her head and sat on the side. Seeing Yan Lu take a deep breath and make the call, she also became nervous.
There was no answer from the other end. The “beep-beep-beep-beep” of the waiting tone was so long that it was unsettling.
The landline at home didn’t connect, and her dad’s cell phone didn’t connect either.
Most of the students in the class had left, and the students on duty were cleaning the classroom.
Yan Lu hesitated for a moment, then called her second uncle.
This time, the call went through.
“Hello, who is this?” The person who answered had a heavy accent.
“Second Uncle, it’s Yan Lu… Is my dad there?”
“Your kid is looking for you… How should I know? You answer it…”
The other end of the line was very noisy. Yan Lu waited for a long time before she finally heard a familiar voice.
“What is it?” His tone was very impatient.
“Dad, it’s the monthly holiday today. I want to stay at a classmate’s house for two days…”
“Get lost—” Before he could finish his sentence, the call had already been hung up.
Yan Lu opened her mouth, a hint of confusion in her eyes.
“How did it go?” Jian Xin asked anxiously. “What did your dad say?”
“He told me to get lost…” Yan Lu lowered her head.
Jian Xin blinked and gently patted her shoulder. “He told you to get lost, doesn’t that mean he agreed? You can come to my place!”
“Huh?” Yan Lu was taken aback for a moment, her eyes full of shock when she looked up. “Can… it be understood that way?”
Jian Xin: “Of course! He told you to get lost, doesn’t that mean he doesn’t want to see you? So if you don’t go home, he’ll be happy to be free!”
Yan Lu’s eyes widened.
She would only have thought that her words had made her dad angry, and would have reflected on whether she should have brought up such a thing to him.
But now that Jian Xin had said it, it did seem to make some sense…
“Aiya, let’s go!” Jian Xin pulled Yan Lu, slung her schoolbag over her shoulder, and urged, “My mom is still waiting. It’s noon, we can’t park outside the school for too long!”
Hearing this, Yan Lu hurriedly packed her schoolbag and followed behind Jian Xin, walking out of the school gate in a daze.
Huang He’s car was parked on the side of the road a little further from the school gate. Jian Xin pulled Yan Lu and ran over, getting into the car with a grin.
Yan Lu followed behind Jian Xin. The moment she closed the car door, her face was full of unease.
Huang He glanced at the rearview mirror and said with a smile, “Yan Lu, Xin Xin has been wanting to bring you home to play.”
Yan Lu: “Hello, Auntie!”
Huang He: “I’ll make you sweet and sour fish this afternoon. Are you hungry now? What do you want to eat?”
Jian Xin immediately leaned on the back of the front seat. “I want to eat the red oil dumplings from near the chemical plant!!”
“Okay, I’ll take you to eat.”
“Let’s buy two more portions to take home for a late-night snack!”
“Alright, alright!”
“Hee-hee…”
Having decided what to eat, Jian Xin opened a crack in the window, tilted her head, and closed her eyes to sleep.
She got carsick easily, and it was uncomfortable to be awake in the car for too long.
After lunch, Huang He brought the two children home.
This was Yan Lu’s first time in a classmate’s home, and every look and action was full of unease.
Jian Xin’s home was on the sixth floor, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. The living room was connected to a balcony, and the kitchen was not small, with a large dining table.
Yan Lu followed behind Jian Xin, walked all the way into the bedroom, and it wasn’t until the door was closed that she said in a very small voice, “Your house is so big!”
“It’s alright!” Jian Xin turned on the air conditioning, plopped down on the bed, stretched, and said with a smile, “My dream is to become a big—superstar when I grow up, earn a lot of money, and buy a big—big villa! I’ll bring my parents, and the people I like, to live with me!”
Yan Lu: “How many people would that be?”
“I don’t know, I don’t have anyone I particularly like right now!” Jian Xin said, then turned to look at Yan Lu, who was standing at the door, and pointed. “Yan Xiaolu, you’re one! If I have a big villa, would you be willing to come and live with me?”
“Let’s talk about it when you have one!”
“I will have one!” Jian Xin spread her arms and lay down on the bed. “If I can’t afford a particularly big one, a smaller one will do—my requirements aren’t high, three floors, a balcony, a small yard, a small fish pond, a parking space, and a tall locust tree!”
She said that when she was in elementary school, her family didn’t live here.
It was a small hill, and her house was on the top. Halfway down the hill, there was a locust tree, and it was particularly fragrant when it bloomed every year!
She and the other children in the neighborhood would climb the tree to pick the flowers. The flowers were in clusters, off-white, and very beautiful. If you put them in your mouth, they were sweet!
Unfortunately, later, new houses were to be built there, and the tree was cut down.
She had missed the taste of those flowers for many years. When she had her own yard in the future, she would definitely plant one!
Jian Xin’s eyes were full of longing. Yan Lu walked over to her side and sat down, poking her arm with a smile. “You call those requirements not high?”
“For a female celebrity, of course it’s not high!” Jian Xin said, lying on the bed, turning her head to look at Yan Lu, and asking with a smile, “So, are you coming to live with me or not!”
Yan Lu: “When that time comes, it’s hard to say if you’ll still let me live with you.”
Jian Xin: “Of course I will! It would be so nice to live with you. I’d have a novel to read every day!”
Yan Lu: “Who would want to live with someone for a lifetime for that reason!”
Jian Xin smiled and didn’t refute, just closed her eyes.
After a brief silence, she yawned, opened her eyes, sat up, and patted the bed, asking Yan Lu which side she wanted to sleep on.
Yan Lu thought for a moment and pointed to the inner side, closer to the wardrobe.
Because she hadn’t made up her mind in advance, Yan Lu had come in a hurry today. Besides the homework and novel in her schoolbag, she hadn’t brought anything else.
After realizing this, Jian Xin quickly took out a nightdress from her wardrobe and found a new toothbrush.
“We’re about the same size, so you can wear mine for now—um, I found you a new toothbrush. You can use that one whenever you come to my place in the future. You can use my cup and face towel for now, and I’ll get you new ones later!”
“If you want to take a shower, the left is cold water, and the right is hot water—but usually, it’s fine in the middle. A little more to the right will be very hot!”
“If you want to take a bath, you can also use the bathtub, but I don’t use it much, so you’d better clean it once before you use it!”
“My parents are very easygoing, so don’t be afraid of them. If you want to watch TV, you can just change the channel. Anyway, as long as I’m in the living room, the remote is always mine!”
Jian Xin arranged things casually. Yan Lu followed behind her, listening to every word very seriously.
Huang He sat on the sofa in the living room. Hearing her talking, she couldn’t help but laugh out loud. “Yes, yes, the head of our household. Why aren’t you coming to occupy the remote today?”
Jian Xin leaned against the doorframe, poked her head out, and replied with a grin, “Because I want to play on the computer!”
She said, then closed the door and led Yan Lu to the computer.
Yan Lu didn’t have a QQ, so Jian Xin helped her create one, then wrote down the account and password on a piece of paper and tucked it into Yan Lu’s Chinese textbook.
Jian Xin said that everyone needed a QQ. If she created one now, she could start leveling it up early. When she had several suns in the future, it would be very impressive when she added people!
Yan Lu: “But I can’t use it.”
Jian Xin: “You can use it when you have a phone, right? Before that, I’ll help you level it up when I have time!”
Yan Lu looked at the only friend on the new account and nodded blankly.
Although she didn’t know what this level was for, it sounded very impressive.
Jian Xin thought for a moment, felt that it wasn’t enough, and prepared to change Yan Lu’s default profile picture.
The new profile picture was randomly found on Baidu, a pink cartoon girl with pigtails, holding a book.
The moment she saw this little girl, Jian Xin turned her head to look at Yan Lu, who was sitting beside her.
Jian Xin: “This is so cute, holding a notebook, it looks a lot like you.”
Yan Lu blinked and didn’t say anything.
Jian Xin: “Can we use this as your profile picture? Or should we keep looking for others?”
Yan Lu: “You decide.”
Jian Xin: “Then let’s use this one, it’s so cute!”
Yan Lu nodded, a small hint of joy in her eyes.
In the past, during computer class, the classmates around her would secretly go on QQ to chat with their online friends, while she would just stare at the computer in a daze until class was over after finishing her classwork.
She didn’t know how to register an account and had no online friends.
This was the first time she had an account of her own, and a… friend who, perhaps, no matter how far apart they were in the future, she could contact through this account.
That night, she wore Jian Xin’s nightdress and slept in Jian Xin’s bed.
The lights in the bedroom were off, and they talked for a long time.
From being nervous to gradually relaxing, everything seemed so natural.
Jian Xin had a very good family. They would make delicious dinners, laugh and talk at the dinner table, peel and cut fruits, stick toothpicks in them, and bring them to the computer desk. And late at night, they would heat up the dumplings they had bought at noon and give them to them as a late-night snack.
Yan Lu lay in bed, listening to the chirping of the cicadas outside the window, and couldn’t help but sigh, “I’m so envious of you, having such a good family.”
“Then do you want to stay?” Jian Xin asked softly. “You don’t like your dad, you don’t like your home. You can stay here. From now on, you’ll come back every week, and you’ll stay here for the winter and summer holidays—”
“…”
“Do you want to, to make this your home?”
“…”
“As long as you want to, leave my parents to me. From now on, we’ll be a family,” Jian Xin said, turning her head slightly to look at Yan Lu very seriously.
It was late at night, and there was not much light in the bedroom. No one could see each other’s expressions.
Yan Lu seemed to be silent for a long time.
When she spoke again, her voice was a little shaky.
She said that her mom was gone, and her dad and grandparents didn’t like her. Although her grandma had been sending money home, she had never come to Liang County to see her.
It seemed that no matter how hard she tried, no one would care about her.
She couldn’t help but ask her, “Why do you want me to stay?”
Why? Is it because she feels sorry for me, thinks I’m unlucky, so she’s just being kind and pulling me up?
But having one more person in the family was never as simple as just one more pair of chopsticks.
Jian Xin turned on her side, looked at the slightly translucent curtains, and thought silently for a long while.
“I have my own selfish reasons,” she said. “You’re my best friend, but high school is only three years. When we go to university, even the best of friends will drift apart—but family won’t.”
“Family can be together for a lifetime. Even if they’re far apart, they’ll get together during the holidays.”
“Yan Lu, no one has ever been like you, agreeing with everything I say, doing everything with me… I have a lot of friends, but there’s only one like you,” her voice was very, very soft, yet it was full of a million points of seriousness. “I don’t want to lose you.”
“If your family was very good to you, I wouldn’t dare to say such things,” Jian Xin said, then pouted and said with a hint of defiance, “but your family is not good to you. I think I can do better. I want to replace them!”
“…Your aunt and uncle probably won’t agree.”
“That’s not something you should worry about. I have my ways,” Jian Xin said, curling up by the side of the bed, her tone full of unhappiness. “If you’re not willing, then forget it. I won’t force you.”
After a long silence, she heard a barely audible “I want to…” from behind her.
“Eh?”
“I, I don’t want to go home anymore…”
Jian Xin took a moment to process, then suddenly cried out in joy, rolled over, and pulled Yan Lu into her arms.
She said she liked Yan Xiaolu the most, and she would go and tell her parents about this right away!
From today on, they would be a family!
They would be together forever in the future, and they would absolutely, absolutely not drift apart easily!
The joys of youth were always so simple.
A lifetime, said so easily, was as easy as eating and drinking.
No one would delve into the future, just simply choose to believe.
And then, they would hug, and fall into a beautiful dream together.
*
—You tell me, in her heart, what am I?
A sliver of light peeked through the unclosed curtains, as if telling someone that it was already late.
It was two in the afternoon. Jian Xin lay in bed in a daze.
She had been woken up by Yan Lu’s call reminding her to do her flexion and extension exercises at noon. After waking up, she hadn’t been able to fall back asleep. At this moment, her eyes were tired, she couldn’t sleep, and she didn’t want to get up.
She had been thinking, her head dizzy.
What did Yan Lu mean by those words last night?
Saying she had no sense of boundaries, that she was using a picture of her duck as her profile picture, and that she didn’t know what she was in her heart…
The more Jian Xin thought, the bigger her headache became.
She also wanted to know, what were they now?
Lingering feelings? Inextricably entangled?
This mess that couldn’t be cut or sorted out, where was she supposed to find the answer?
She wanted to ask, in Yan Lu’s heart, what did she want her to be?
With this thought, Jian Xin couldn’t help but pick up her phone and glance at WeChat—this was the thirty-seventh time she had looked since she woke up.
It wasn’t a hallucination. Yan Lu had really changed her WeChat profile picture to the Xin Xin drawn by Yao Wenqian.
A duck, a dog.
The same art style, the same lawn, and the same looking back against the strong wind.
It had to be said, it really looked like—um, it looked a lot like a couple’s profile picture.
Yan Lu had said that she had changed her profile picture because of her…
Could she understand this as a deliberate change to a couple’s profile picture?
But how could Yan Lu change to a couple’s profile picture with her?
She wasn’t a block of wood. She could naturally see that although Yan Lu said that the past was in the past, she was actually still very bothered by it.
They had always maintained a very subtle and indescribable distance. This distance did not come from her, but from Yan Lu’s deliberate distancing.
She could try hard to get closer, but every time she took the initiative to get closer to a certain extent, that feeling of deliberate distancing would immediately appear.
She really couldn’t understand what Yan Lu thought of her in her heart.
She had disappeared without a word back then, and now that they had finally met again, she was both good to her and kept a safe distance.
If she hadn’t personally heard many things she shouldn’t have, she would have thought Yan Lu was such a carefree person.
Jian Xin closed her eyes and took several deep breaths in a row.
She opened QQ and typed and deleted a message asking for clarification—in the end, all she sent were two ordinary sentences.
Picked Up a Heart: I saw you changed your WeChat profile picture!
Picked Up a Heart: Qianqian drew it, right? So cute, duck!
Perched by the Roadside: Mmm.
Picked Up a Heart: Why the sudden urge to change your profile picture?
Perched by the Roadside: Qianqian drew it so cutely, so I just changed it.
Perched by the Roadside: She was very happy when she saw it, so it wasn’t a waste to change it.
Picked Up a Heart: [Oh!]
That’s not what she said last night!
Damn it, I know the other person is lying, but I can’t produce any evidence!
Jian Xin gritted her teeth at her phone, but the words she sent still looked cheerful.
Picked Up a Heart: That’s true, she was also very happy when I changed my profile picture yesterday.
Picked Up a Heart: The happiness of an artist is just that simple.
Picked Up a Heart: A new profile picture is good, a change of profile picture, a change of mood!
Picked Up a Heart: Don’t you think, your duck and dog look quite like a couple!
Picked Up a Heart: [Hahahahaha]
Perched by the Roadside: Do they?
Picked Up a Heart: Ivory!
Picked Up a Heart: Yes!
Picked Up a Heart: Typo (:з」∠)
Picked Up a Heart: These two little ones look like they have a very good relationship!
Jian Xin quickly typed the next sentence in the input box—so good that when I look at our profile pictures now, I almost think they’re a couple’s profile pictures.
Perched by the Roadside: Ducks and dogs have a reproductive barrier.
Jian Xin’s fingers, which were sending the message, trembled for a moment, and she silently deleted the words she had just typed.
Picked Up a Heart: [Hahahahaha]
Picked Up a Heart: You’re writing a fantasy novel, and you’re still worried about a reproductive barrier.
Picked Up a Heart: [Hahahahaha]
Picked Up a Heart: Great Author Perched by the Roadside is so rigorous!
So rigorous that it’s a little choking, hey!
“Who was it yesterday who said I was a stubborn dead duck?” Jian Xin said, pinching her phone and couldn’t help but mutter, her words full of dissatisfaction, “When it comes to being stubborn, how can I be more stubborn than this great author!”
Jian Xin was about to close the chat box huffily when she saw Yan Lu send two more videos.
In the video, Cauliflower was swimming in the river near the community, and Xin Xin was standing on the bank, a leash tied around its neck.
It tentatively stretched out a short little leg and made a ripple on the surface of the water, as if it wanted to go in, but didn’t have the courage.
In the second video, not only did Xin Xin not dare to go into the river, but it was even further away from the water.
It huddled by Yan Lu’s feet, its little head tilted slightly, its pointy ears trembling slightly in the wind.
The camera turned, and its big, round eyes were actually staring at the little Cauliflower swimming in the river, looking very envious.
Cauliflower was different. It swam gracefully in the river, flapping its wings from time to time, looking at Xin Xin and laughing with a “quack-quack.” It looked so arrogant, as if to say—little doggy, come down, duck!
Jian Xin couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the video.
Wait a minute, wasn’t she still angry just now…
—No, no!
Jian Xin, oh Jian Xin, look at your worthless self. How can you be appeased by two casually recorded videos!
She’s not even telling you the truth. You should also learn not to reply, to act cold!
Perched by the Roadside: Cauliflower is also strange. Sometimes it refuses to go into the river no matter how you coax it, and sometimes it just jumps in the moment it sees a river, and you can’t call it back for a long time.
Perched by the Roadside: I’m a little confused about whether it likes to swim or not.
Jian Xin pouted and muttered, “Of course Cauliflower likes to swim. The one who’s afraid to go in is me—”
Perched by the Roadside: But Xin Xin has always been very afraid of water.
Perched by the Roadside: A lot like you.
Jian Xin: “…”
I can’t stand it, I have to reply.
She might really have that obsessive-compulsive disorder where she would die if she didn’t reply.
Picked Up a Heart: I thought all dogs could do the doggy paddle.
Perched by the Roadside: Maybe they can, but I’ve never seen it.
Jian Xin sat up with her phone, thought for a long while, and silently sent a question to the other side.
Picked Up a Heart: Speaking of which, I’ve always wanted to ask, why did you name your dog after me?
Yan Lu’s reply speed instantly slowed down.
This time, there wasn’t even a “typing.”
Jian Xin stared at her phone screen and waited patiently for a long time, finally getting a reply from the other side—but it was a counter-question.
Perched by the Roadside: What do you think?
Picked Up a Heart: [Hahahahaha]
Picked Up a Heart: I suspect
Picked Up a Heart: I mean, I have a little suspicion
Picked Up a Heart: [Sweats] You’re calling me a dog in a roundabout way?
Perched by the Roadside: So
Picked Up a Heart: So?
Perched by the Roadside: Are you as loyal as a dog?
Picked Up a Heart: [Bye-bye]
Picked Up a Heart: [Okay, I’ll get lost/(ㄒoㄒ)/~~]
Holding a grudge, holding a grudge, right!
She knew it, Yan Lu was still holding a grudge in her heart!
Ha, I’m really impressed, duck!
This Taurus, how can she hold a grudge even more than a Virgo like me?
