Chapter 21 Part 1

Bai Kou was pleasantly surprised. She turned her head and met Yang Wanxi’s smile.

She also laughed. “Yang Kuikui!”

Yang Wanxi slowly walked up to Bai Kou. She glanced at the bag in Bai Kou’s hand, then looked toward the person behind Bai Kou.

“You’re the friend of Bai Doudou who really hates wearing the school uniform?”

“Hey—” Bai Kou hurriedly interrupted.

Unexpectedly, Yang Wanxi went around her and very enthusiastically draped an arm over Pei Yue’s shoulders, directly leading her into the house. As she walked, she comforted her, “That’s normal. The school uniform is ugly. I don’t like wearing it either. But later in high school, they’ll crack down even harder. If there’s time, I can teach you how to dodge the teachers.”

Pei Yue seemed a bit embarrassed at having her shoulders held. She turned back to glance at Bai Kou.

“…Okay, thank you, sister.”

Yang Wanxi led Pei Yue to sit on the sofa and casually shoved an apple into her hand. Then she turned sideways to look at Bai Kou, who was placing the bags on the coffee table.

It was also in this interval when no one paid attention to her that the smile at the corner of Yang Wanxi’s mouth cooled a few degrees.

She stared wordlessly at this Bai Kou who was squatting by the coffee table looking for something. She thought, ‘Fine, you Bai Doudou. And here I was eagerly bringing you a bunch of gifts, but with Pei Yue around, you even forgot I was coming back home today?’

Yang Wanxi was not one to sit idly by.

Since Bai Kou had not welcomed her right away, she did not want to wait until later when Bai Kou suddenly remembered and welcomed her back like some kind of charity.

Thus, Yang Wanxi walked closer and knocked on Bai Kou’s shoulder.

“Hm?” Bai Kou paused her rummaging and foolishly tilted her face up. Her big eyes opened wide and bright.

“…”

It was extremely regrettable. This appearance, which she had always found cute before, only made Yang Wanxi’s heart feel more stifled now. She forced a smile. “Bai Doudou, you two go ahead and play in the room first. I have an important call to make.”

Bai Kou let out an “ah.” Her lips parted slightly, and her gaze drifted to the left, as if she pondered for a second.

But she soon obeyed Yang Wanxi’s words. She stood up and smiled as she said, “Alright! Then we’ll wait until you’re done!”

With that, she stepped aside half a pace and waved at Pei Yue. “Come on, Pei Yue. Let’s go in!”

Yang Wanxi watched the two figures, one in front of the other, enter the inner room. She pursed her lips and let out a sigh.

Striving for realism.

Once Bai Kou closed the room door, Yang Wanxi sat on the sofa and called her mom to report that she had safely arrived home.

This call unusually lasted more than ten minutes. Even Yang Yingyun could tell that Yang Wanxi was scraping for things to say. She asked with slight concern if something was wrong.

Of course, Yang Wanxi said no.

After hanging up, separated by a door, Yang Wanxi could faintly hear Bai Kou’s laughter from inside.

Her expression suddenly turned a bit irritable.

She tossed her phone on the table and leaned forward, using her fingertips to push aside the plastic bag Bai Kou had just placed there.

“Buying so much candy. Don’t you care about your teeth…” she muttered.

Suddenly, she noticed a piece of paper pressed under layers of colorful packaging.

Yang Wanxi frowned and moved the grape-flavored one covering the paper aside.

【I think green apple flavor is tasty.】 —The handwriting was straight and even, clearly not Bai Kou’s.

With a “rip,” Yang Wanxi withdrew her hand and inexplicably chuckled. She looked up toward the tightly shut room door.

In less than two seconds, she calmly stood up and pulled out a half-person-tall white gift bag from beside the sofa.

“Pa!”

She slapped two plastic-sealed autographed photos onto the coffee table.

Then she grabbed the gift bag and left.

Yang Wanxi dumped a bag of apple-flavored snacks onto the sofa when she got home. For some reason, she was a bit angry. Every package she looked at seemed like Bai Kou’s face.

She paced back and forth in the house with her hands on her hips. Finally, she could not hold back. She pointed at a bag of green apple-flavored popcorn and vented wildly. “Bai Doudou! You might as well anger me to death!”

Fine, whatever.

After venting on her own, Yang Wanxi turned back to find Bai Kou.

But this time, she went empty-handed, planning to settle things with the heartless Bai Doudou after Pei Yue left.

Unexpectedly, it was Pei Yue who opened the door for her.

“Uh, sister.” Pei Yue stepped back.

“Mm.” Yang Wanxi smiled and walked inside.

Seeing that Bai Kou’s room door was wide open and no one was in the living room, she turned her head, about to ask “Where’s Bai Kou?” when she saw a white oval machine gripped in Pei Yue’s right hand.

Yang Wanxi froze for a second, then looked toward the end of the machine. A transparent Band-Aid with a rabbit pattern was stuck there.

Not long after receiving this gift as a child, Yang Wanxi had slipped and dropped it on the ground, scratching it. She had cried while sticking on this Band-Aid. If one looked closely, they could still find the crooked “Y” written on the Band-Aid.

Heh.

She sneered inwardly and withdrew her gaze. She had said it was a treasure, one she wouldn’t even let Lu Tongtong play with… and yet she so easily handed it to a classmate she had just met less than two months ago.

In the silence, Yang Wanxi and Pei Yue sat down one on each side of the sofa.

Her already unpleasant mood plummeted to rock bottom. Every now and then, she glanced at the Tamagotchi in Pei Yue’s hand and thought, ‘Are all the things I give you going to be shared so casually with others from now on?’

At this moment, Bai Kou finally came out of the room, holding a shell-shaped little pouch in her hand. “Found it, found it! It was in my bag after all.”

Pei Yue stood up to meet her.

Yang Wanxi watched as the two naturally exchanged the items in their hands. Her eyebrows furrowed so much she was on the verge of snapping, but Bai Doudou completely failed to notice her displeasure.

Bai Kou was only focused on looking at her watch. “Ah, Pei Yue, I’ll walk you down to catch a cab.”

“Mm.” Pei Yue nodded.

The two figures reflected in Yang Wanxi’s pupils as they walked out together.

The last words before closing the door: Yang Wanxi heard Pei Yue say, “If you still want to go see your sister tonight, you can message me…”

What was this about seeing sister?

Yang Wanxi was extremely puzzled.

While waiting for Bai Kou to return, Yang Wanxi went to pour herself a glass of water. She drank it while cooling herself down, reminding herself that Bai Doudou was just a little kid. No need to fuss with her; just yell at her and be done.

Fine, whatever…

No, this time it was not whatever.

It was almost forty minutes before Bai Kou returned. She came in humming a tune, in a great mood.

Ignoring Yang Wanxi, who stood by the dining table with arms crossed, she lowered her head and typed on her phone. “Beep beep beep”—QQ notification sounds rang nonstop. Seeing that Bai Kou was about to head straight back to her room—

“Great job, Bai Doudou. Got a new friend, and now you treat me like air, huh.”

Bai Kou abruptly stopped and looked at Yang Wanxi. “Eh? You’re still here?”

“You like this new friend of yours so much.” Yang Wanxi leaned back with both hands supporting her on the dining table edge and asked coldly, “I haven’t seen you being this clingy with Lu Tongtong. You just parted and already chatting on QQ?”

“It’s not that.” Bai Kou straightened up. “It’s a message from sister.”

Yang Wanxi raised an eyebrow. “Which sister?”

Bai Kou was baffled. “My sister, Bai Yuqiao.”

“Bai Yuqiao?” Only then did Yang Wanxi straighten up. “Didn’t she go back to school? Why would she message you?”

“She had a high fever yesterday. The doctor told her to keep taking medicine for the next couple days. I’m worried she won’t.” As she spoke, Bai Kou raised her phone screen for Yang Wanxi to see. “So I asked her to send me a photo before taking it.”

Yang Wanxi anxiously stepped right up to Bai Kou, snatched her phone, and roughly scrolled through the chat history. “What happened… Why didn’t you two tell me anything…”

“You were shooting the ad…”

“I was shooting—” Yang Wanxi paused, then suddenly looked up with a complicated expression. “So even Pei Yue knows?”

“Ah.” Bai Kou responded. “She and Tongtong went to the hospital with me at the time.”

Yang Wanxi pursed her lips and asked unreasonably, “What about me?”

“You… You were shooting the ad and couldn’t come back. We didn’t want to worry you.” Bai Kou said.

After a moment of silence, Yang Wanxi returned the phone to Bai Kou. “Why did you casually let others play with the thing I gave you?”

“Thing?”

Yang Wanxi expressionlessly drew an oval in the air. “Little white egg.”

“Oh oh.” Bai Kou remembered. “No, I didn’t let her play with it. Earlier, I was helping her find her mp3, and she saw mine and said she used to have one too—”

“Enough.” Yang Wanxi cut her off. “Stinky kid. No matter what, you always have a point.”

Bai Kou did not know why but laughed a little. Her fingertip carefully poked at Yang Wanxi’s sulking cheek. “Right… um… the autographs you brought for me and Tongtong, I’ve put them away. Thanks.”

“I shouldn’t have brought them for you.” Yang Wanxi said. “So busy and still had to worry about this for you.”

“Hehe, then what about the treats you said you’d bring me—”

“Nope.” Yang Wanxi turned her face away stubbornly, paused, then said, “Too busy. Forgot.”

Bai Kou froze for two seconds, then smiled and followed up. “Alright, fair enough. Then come with me. I’ll give you something.”

Yang Wanxi was pulled into the room by Bai Kou’s hand.

Bai Kou squatted in front of the desk and opened the cabinet. “I thought it was outside earlier. My mistake.”

With a few “clack clack” sounds of things bumping, Bai Kou took out a wooden A4-sized picture frame.

Yang Wanxi’s tense expression softened a bit. Under Bai Kou’s gesture, she took the frame.

Inside was a hand-drawn collage painting.

The overall color scheme was blue and white. In the center, a girl stood with her left hand on her hip and her right hand forward in a V-sign. The armband hanging on her sleeve had two bars.

Behind the girl was a pair of spread wings. The surrounding decorations were also blue and white: floating clouds, pigeons flying toward the blue sky, stars, raindrops, and the first electronic pet Yang Wanxi had raised in her Tamagotchi.

On the raised strip at the bottom, written in black ballpoint pen:

【Wishing the best squad leader in the world, Yang Kuikui, victory from the start! Great success! —UIO】

Yang Wanxi stared blankly at this collage. Bai Kou hugged her through the painting and softly said, “Sorry, Yang Kuikui. I thought you’d get home at least by eleven… Anyway! Congratulations on smoothly finishing the shoot! Welcome home, Yang Kuikui!”

A strange mood.

It should have been touching.

Yang Wanxi did not understand why there was this peculiar emotion in her heart at this moment.

A kind of… indescribable fluctuation.

She held the painting. Bai Kou hugged and rubbed against her like when they were little, but she was unable to respond for a long time.

“Knock knock knock.”

The front door suddenly rang three times. Only then did Yang Wanxi lightly push Bai Kou’s shoulder as if jolted. “Uh… thanks… You, you let go of me first…”

The scene inside and outside the door changed again.

Bai Kou stood inside the door, leaning out half her upper body and waving at Yang Wanxi’s back. “Bye bye, Yang Kuikui!”

Pei Yue stood outside the door, also turning to watch Yang Wanxi leave.

Once that figure completely disappeared, Pei Yue heard Bai Kou actually sigh.

“Sigh… She didn’t bring me any treats…”

Pei Yue turned back and saw the disappointment on Bai Kou’s face. Her original intent had been to come back for her key, but after thinking, her words changed. “I just saw someone scooping goldfish by the roadside.”

“Hm?” Bai Kou snapped back to attention. “This late?”

“Mm.” Pei Yue nodded and gestured with a smile. “About—this big. An inflatable pool with a lamp set up. On the square not far from your place.”

Bai Kou tilted her head up slightly to imagine. “That must be pretty…”

“Mm, so let’s go scoop goldfish.” Pei Yue said softly.

“Ah?” Bai Kou froze and checked her watch. “But it’s almost ten. Isn’t it too—” She did not finish saying “late.”

Pei Yue grasped her wrist.