The Little Duck 36p2

Chapter 36 p2

Just as Yan Lu had picked up the things from the floor and put them back on the shoe cabinet, she was kicked back to the floor by the duck.

This time, she was completely stunned.

“Quack quack quack quack ahh!”

Yan Lu, Yan Lu, don’t go out yet. Can you give me a call? Please!

“Ahhh ahhh ugh ugh ugh!”

Either wake me up, or just find out that I haven’t woken up yet, so you don’t have to make this trip for nothing!!!

“Quack ahh—quack quack quack quack ahh!”

This is so frustrating! What is all this nonsense! That dead duck is messing with me at a critical moment!

Jian Xin flapped her wings forcefully, squawking and crying out, hoping that Yan Lu would be able to understand what she was trying to say.

But Yan Lu was dazed for a moment, then reached out and grabbed her from the shoe cabinet, holding the duck by the base of its wings, and turned to walk into the study.

“Quack?!”

What are you doing? You’re not going to lock me in a cage, are you!

“Ahhh ahhh! Ahhh ahhh ahhh!”

This isn’t right. I’m telling you, even if you really have to go, you should take me with you, not lock me in a cage!!!

The little duck struggled desperately, but it couldn’t struggle against a human’s hand and was thrown into the duck cage in an instant.

When she turned around, the small door of the cage had already been closed from the top.

Jian Xin opened her beak and stared blankly at Yan Lu outside the cage.

Her mood today didn’t seem to be very good. Both her tone when she was coaxing the duck and her actions when she was locking the duck were not as gentle as before.

“…Quack?”

Yan Lu, can you let me out?

“Quack quack quack quack quack…”

Or, you can just give me a call…

The little duck’s cries suddenly weakened.

Yan Lu looked down at the time, frowned, opened QQ, and clicked on her private chat with Jian Xin.

11:30

[Cancelled, click to redial]

11:32

[Cancelled, click to redial]

11:33

[Cancelled, click to redial]

Jian Xin’s schedule was a little strange. It wasn’t the first time her calls reminding her to do her flexion and extension exercises had gone unanswered. But generally, as long as she was awake, she would always reply with a message and explain a thing or two.

Today, there had been no reply until this point. Had she forgotten her promise and overslept, or had her phone forgotten to charge the night before and automatically shut down, so she hadn’t even heard the alarm?

If it was Jian Xin, this was not surprising at all.

But she still wanted to keep her appointment…

Maybe by the time Jian Xin woke up, it would be too late for the movie, but it wasn’t impossible to find a place there and have a meal.

Jian Xin would probably rush to the mall, her face full of apology, and frantically apologize to her, she thought.

To be honest, if she was really stood up, she didn’t know what the point of listening to these few apologies would be.

People always have a thousand and one reasons not to keep a long-standing appointment. No matter how perfect the reason, what’s missed is missed. There’s really no need to explain… after all, she had missed even more important things, so she had no right to blame Jian Xin.

But she just wanted to hear how Jian Xin would explain it to her then.

So she had, on a whim, changed her clothes and put on makeup.

But the duck at home, for some reason, was in a bad mood. It had been quacking nonstop since it woke up and had even made a mess of the things on the shoe cabinet.

Today was really a day when nothing was going right.

She had said she would meet at two-twenty, but she suddenly felt a hint of retreat.

Yan Lu stood in the study, staring at her phone in silence for a long time, then suddenly took a deep breath and walked towards the front door.

Jian Xin in the cage was so anxious that she hurriedly tried to reach the lock outside the cage with her beak.

But her beak was not that flexible. Even though she knew how to open the cage, she had tried several times but couldn’t push open the simple lock.

Just then, Xin Xin suddenly walked in, wagging its tail, and observed the duck’s strange behavior with its head tilted.

Perhaps out of curiosity, it hopped over and pushed open the cage lock with its small, black nose.

Jian Xin was taken aback for a moment. When she came back to her senses, she was overjoyed and gave Xin Xin a big kiss on the forehead.

“Quack ahh!” Little doggy, I love you!

Just as Yan Lu had walked out of the house and was about to close and lock the door, she saw Cauliflower, who she had just locked in a cage, rushing towards her with flapping wings.

It was craning its neck forward, its little wings flapping so fast they were a blur, rushing like a little rocket.

Xin Xin was chasing closely behind it, its four short little legs hopping with joy.

Yan Lu quickly stopped closing the door, afraid that she would hurt these two little ones who were running like the wind.

The next second, they rushed up one after the other, surrounded her feet, and started a symphony of quacks and barks.

Yan Lu crouched down and coaxed them for a long time, but the two little ones refused to go home.

She tried to walk a few steps towards the house, wanting to trick them back inside and then find a chance to slip away, but she had already reached the sofa, and the duck was still not falling for it—it just stood outside, its head tilted up, watching her from a distance.

Cauliflower stood there motionless, and Xin Xin just wagged its tail and ran back and forth between the inside and outside of the door.

Yan Lu thought for a long time, and in the end, she took them both in the car.

Being able to go out with Yan Lu, Jian Xin couldn’t help but feel a little relieved—this is good too. Even if I can’t make it to the date, at least Yan Lu has the duck and dog to keep her company.

It sat in the back seat of the car, looking at the blue sky and white clouds outside the window.

Xin Xin crouched beside it, its tail wagging, patting the backrest, looking particularly happy.

Jian Xin tilted her head in a daze and let her thoughts wander.

In the middle of winter, being stood up, Yan Lu will definitely be very angry, right?

When I wake up, how should I explain it to her, and how should I apologize to get her forgiveness…

As the little duck was thinking, a bark suddenly came from behind her.

She subconsciously turned her head, but before she could see anything clearly, she was slapped on the forehead by a dog’s paw.

The force of this paw made her lose her footing, and like a ball, she rolled under the seat with her eyes closed.

“Quack—ah?!”

Ouch—the right side, it hurts so much!

Did I fall on my duck leg?

Am I going to be lame as a duck too?

No, no… something is pressing on me!

Jian Xin’s eyes flew open. She found that she was curled up in her quilt, a thick quilt pressing down on her, and her right leg was aching faintly.

She reached for her phone, wanting to see what time it was, but found that her phone had forgotten to charge last night and was now completely dead.

“Ahhh, are you an idiot!!!”

Jian Xin cursed as she climbed out of bed, rushed into the bathroom, and only had time to brush her teeth, wash her face, change her clothes, grab her wallet, and hurry out of the community on her crutches.

She walked in the cold wind, combing her hair with her fingers, and kept muttering something.

—So rough, I’ve never been so rough even when I was working!

—You’re really something, to be so rough on a date!

—What a bad duck, how can it grab me at a time like this? It’s really afraid I won’t die fast enough!

As she muttered, she hailed an empty taxi on the side of the road. Her first words after giving her destination were, “Sir, can I pay with cash?”

“Ah, I might not have change.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine, I have small change!” Jian Xin said, then quickly asked, “Sir, what time is it now?”

The driver looked down at the time. “Two-thirty.”

“Then sir, can you please drive a little faster… I have a date with a friend, and I’m already late!”

“Then you should have left earlier next time,” the driver said, glancing at the frantic girl in the rearview mirror with a meaningful tone. “Punctuality is very important, otherwise you’ll miss things, you know?”

“I know, I know… but this was an unavoidable factor. Anyway, just drive a little faster, sir!”

“I’ll do my best,” the driver said, speeding up.

It was two-fifty-four when Jian Xin got out of the car.

She looked around at the mall entrance but didn’t see Yan Lu. She hurried into the mall and, using an emergency data cable, turned on her phone and rented a power bank.

The moment she plugged in the power bank, Jian Xin quickly opened QQ and took a look.

The next second, she looked at the five missed calls in her private chat and took a sharp breath.

Her finger, which was pressing the redial button, couldn’t stop trembling.

The voice call connected quickly. She spoke timidly, saying with an awkward but polite tone, “Hi…”

“Not hi.”

“…”

“Um, I, I overslept. I forgot to charge my phone, so I didn’t hear any of the calls,” Jian Xin said, biting the bullet. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. I’m already at the mall, I just rented a power bank!”

“The movie started half an hour ago. Um… what do you think, should we go in and watch, or buy tickets for the next show?”

“We probably don’t need to watch it,” Yan Lu said.

“Ah, wh-why…”

Not even need to watch it, is Yan Lu that angry…

“I can’t get into the mall. You can come and find me,” Yan Lu said, and hung up the phone.

Soon, she sent a location.

Jian Xin was taken aback for a moment, then followed the navigation.

The location was a coffee shop near the mall, about three hundred meters away, and the place was quite remote, requiring her to go into a small alley.

Jian Xin walked for about ten minutes and finally found it in a corner.

Yan Lu was sitting at a table with a sofa by the window in the corner, with Cauliflower on her lap and Xin Xin by her side.

She seemed to have heard the sound of the crutches on the ground, stood up, and turned to wave at Jian Xin.

Jian Xin hurried over, looking at Yan Lu with some confusion.

She doesn’t look angry?

Jian Xin was a little afraid to sit down. She stood on the side in a daze and apologized with pursed lips, “I’m sorry, I accidentally overslept…”

“It’s only a little past three, I haven’t been waiting long,” Yan Lu said faintly, pointing to the seat opposite her. “Sit down, your leg is still injured.”

Jian Xin sat down on the sofa, terrified, and asked softly, “You’re not angry?”

Yan Lu: “What’s there to be angry about?”

Jian Xin: “I’m late.”

Yan Lu: “At least you’re here.”

Jian Xin: “But we missed the movie.”

Yan Lu was silent for a moment, then smiled nonchalantly. “It’s just a movie.”

This sounded very subtle. Her tone was faint, as if she didn’t care, but she didn’t mention a solution, so it was very likely that she was sulking…

Jian Xin was in a panic. It took her a long time to muster up the courage to speak. “I feel like it’s not too late now. There’s another show at three-thirty. We can make it if we walk back now, and we can have dinner right after… So, are we really not watching it?”

Yan Lu: “Let’s not.”

Jian Xin bit her lip and frowned slightly—Yan Lu is still angry after all. She doesn’t even want to watch the next show.

“I don’t know what’s going on today. These two little ones insisted on coming out with me. Even the cage couldn’t hold them. It’s like they’ve become spirits, they just have to stick to me…” Yan Lu said, rubbing Xin Xin’s head. “The mall doesn’t allow pets, and this is the only pet-friendly shop nearby, so I could only bring them here to wait for you.”

“When I was sitting here, I kept thinking, why did these two little ones have to come along? It’s as if they knew you would be late today, and were afraid that I would be unhappy waiting alone, so they came out to keep me company.”

She said, then smiled and shook her head, a hint of relief in her words. “Although you were very late, I also brought them along. We both have a problem that we can’t watch this movie—”

Jian Xin opened her mouth, her eyes widening.

Yan Lu: “How about we call it even this time, no one blames anyone, and we’ll make another date?”

Hearing this, Xin Xin and Cauliflower both tilted their heads, staring at Jian Xin with their big and small round eyes.

Jian Xin was in a daze for a long time under the three gazes before she suddenly came back to her senses.

—Oh!!

So that’s how it is!!!

How did I forget that pets aren’t allowed in the mall?

That was close, I almost thought Yan Lu was inconsolable!

Sigh, I was just scaring myself!