Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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This photograph looked quite old.
Although it had been laminated, it had still inevitably yellowed. The woman in the photo had long, curly hair, popular at the time, and wore a white dress.
She had delicate features and soft facial expressions, like a movie star from years past. The little boy in her arms was also adorable, but he seemed to have just cried before the photo was taken; his eyes were watery and red, and he clung tightly to the woman’s neck, looking pitifully at the camera.
Wu Yinghua looked at it for a long time but couldn’t recognize who the two people were. She then looked inside the envelope; there was nothing there except for this photograph. Just then, Yu Zhuo came out after washing his hands. Seeing what she was holding, he immediately yelled, “Mom, what are you doing! Don’t go through my things!”
Wu Yinghua already used to her son’s temper, asked, “Whose photo is this?”
Yu Zhuo rushed over and snatched the photo and envelope, saying irritably, “Someone else’s!” He shoved the photo back into the envelope, furious, “Don’t go through my bag again!”
Wu Yinghua was also angered by his attitude: “Who went through your bag? You didn’t pack it properly and it fell out! And even if I did, so what? I’m your mother! You came from my belly, everything you have is from me!”
Yu Zhuo roared. “Then put me back in! Did you even ask for my permission before you gave birth to me?”
Yu Cheng coming home from work, opened the door and interrupted the argument: “I could hear you two talking outside. What are you doing? Comparing who can shout the loudest?”
He walked over and slapped Yu Zhuo on the back of the head. “No manners, always nagging your mother.” He then said to Wu Yinghua, “How old are you, still arguing with your son?”
Wu Yinghua sneered: “He’s all grown up now, his wings have hardened, he doesn’t care whether he has me as his mother or not.”
Yu Zhuo grew angrier and angrier, feeling that this middle-aged woman nearing menopause was simply unreasonable. She was clearly in the wrong first, yet she could claim the high ground with just “I’m your mother.” Didn’t the child have any human rights?!
Yu Zhuo stormed into the bedroom, slammed the door shut, and locked it.
This completely enraged Wu Yinghua: “You dare to throw a tantrum at me? Yu Zhuo! Get out here! I’m going to punish you today, but where’s the key? Where’s the door key? Open the door for me!”
Yu Cheng tried to pull and persuade her, and for a moment, chaos erupted inside the house. Qi Ying, who had just finished washing the dishes and came out of the kitchen, belatedly realized that her aunt seemed to be angry.
Yu Zhuo was at a rebellious age, and this wasn’t the first time he had angered his parents.
Yu Cheng spoke to Wu Yinghua gently for a long time, and she finally stopped yelling and sat on the sofa wiping away her tears. What did they mean by a son growing up and not listening to his mother anymore? She almost died giving birth to him, raised him with great care, and before she could even enjoy his blessings, he was already disliking her. He treated her like this just because she rummaged through his schoolbag. Would he kick her out after he got married?
Besides, she hadn’t even rummaged through that schoolbag!
She felt deeply wronged.
Although Yu Zhuo had locked the door, he could still hear Wu Yinghua’s sobbing complaints, and he angrily pounded the bed. He glanced at the envelope he’d tossed on the bed, practically wanting to tear it to shreds.
He then thought fiercely, “It’s all Ji Rang’s fault!”
But having been entrusted with a task, he didn’t touch the envelope and shoved it back into his bag.
Around eight o’clock, there was a gentle knock on the door; the force of the knock told him it was Qi Ying. Yu Zhuo opened the door a crack, and Qi Ying stood outside with a bowl of warmed food, handing it to him.
Yu Zhuo mouthed, “Where’s my mom?”
Qi Ying silently replied, “Asleep.”
Actually, she wasn’t asleep; Wu Yinghua had warmed the food, but she’d asked her to bring it over.
Yu Zhuo’s stomach was rumbling, so he stopped trying to assert himself and took the bowl, burying his head in it. Yu Cheng slipped out to check on things, then went back to the room and told Wu Yinghua, “Look how hungry our son is! He’s growing, and he has so much homework.”
Wu Yinghua lay in bed scrolling through Douyin (TikTok). Several hours had passed, and her anger had subsided considerably; so she just snorted and said nothing more.
The next morning, Wu Yinghua went to wake Yu Zhuo, who always liked to sleep in, as usual.
Breakfast was already prepared.
Yu Zhuo was a little awkward, but ate the tomato and egg noodles[1] his mother had cooked that morning clean. Before leaving, he said, “Mom, I’m leaving.”
“Did you take your bus card? Did you put your keys in? Wait a minute, did you tuck the back of your school uniform collar in?”
She nagged as usual, unchanged.
Mother and son never hold grudges overnight.
On the bus, Yu Zhuo had already put the previous night’s farce behind him. Now he began to think about how to deliver the envelope to Ji Rang.
The easiest way, of course, would be to have Qi Ying deliver it, but how could he let his sister take the initiative to contact Ji Rang! He had to handle the dangerous task himself.
Sigh, if he had known it would be this troublesome, he wouldn’t have accepted the letter yesterday.
He was truly blinded by hormones.
After thinking about it all the way, Yu Zhuo felt that the safest way was to slip it in secretly, avoiding direct contact with Ji Rang, after all, he had just had a conflict with Qu Dazhuang and his group yesterday.
Yu Zhuo immediately messaged Yang Xinyuan, asking him to find out if Class 9 of the second year of high school had PE class today. He also threatened that if the information was wrong again, he would hack Yang Xinyuan’s QQ account while he was sleeping and disband all his QQ groups.
Yang Xinyuan was so scared that he immediately sent over the Class 9 timetable.
There really was a PE class, the third period in the morning.
Yu Zhuo was full of confidence.
After arriving at school, Qi Ying parted ways with him. When she entered the classroom, most of the students were already there, some chatting, some reading, and some doing their homework. She took off her backpack and was putting books in her desk when something blocked her way.
Qi Ying reached in and felt two cool boxes.
Curious, she took them out and saw that they contained a mango mousse and a matcha cake.
She didn’t know when they had been put in there; but the surface of the boxes was slightly condensed and cool.
She held the boxes, blinked, and smiled sweetly.
….
After the second period, Yu Zhuo pretended to go to the restroom and ran to the second-year floor. Passing by Class 9, he saw the classroom was almost empty, with only a few students packing up their things, seemingly about to leave.
He knew Ji Rang sat in the last row by the window.
As soon as the last few students left, he crouched down and slipped in through the back door, heading straight for Ji Rang’s seat.
The desk was bare, nothing was there, and the inside of the desk was the same. He took the envelope out of his pocket and carefully slipped it into the desk.
Mission accomplished, a relieved smile appeared on his face, and he turned to leave.
Looking up, he saw two girls standing hand-in-hand at the back door, staring at him in disbelief.
Yu Zhuo took off running, not forgetting to cover his face with his hands as he ran.
Within a morning, the news spread throughout Haicheng No. 1 High School that a boy, a freshman, had slipped a love letter to Ji Rang.
Yu Zhuo: ………
In Class 9, Ji Rang, sweating after the PE class, sat in his seat, legs crossed, looking at the letter on his desk with a complicated expression.
Several people around him stared wide-eyed. Qu Dazhuang exclaimed, “Brother Rang, open it and see! I’ve never received a love letter from a boy before, what does it look like?”
Liu Haiyang kicked him, “You’ve never even received a love letter from a girl, have you?!”
Ji Rang chuckled, picked up the envelope, and initially intended to tear it open. But the texture felt strange; it didn’t seem like a letter.
He casually opened it and glanced inside.
Upon seeing what it was, his nonchalant expression instantly changed.
Everyone around him shivered.
Ji Rang’s face turned grim, his thin lips pressed into a thin line. Clutching the envelope, he left the classroom without a word.
Qi Ying had just reached the end of the corridor when she saw Ji Rang emerge from the back door of the classroom and head upstairs. His long legs took large strides, each step covering two steps, while Qi Ying couldn’t keep up and had to jog.
After climbing three flights of stairs, she was panting heavily.
Ji Rang wasn’t unaware someone was behind him; at first, he assumed she was going upstairs and didn’t bother to look back. All the way to the rooftop, the slightly panting sound followed him, until he impatiently turned around and saw Qi Ying a few steps behind, leaning against the railing, looking utterly exhausted.
His pupils dilated, his fingers trembling slightly as he gripped the envelope, and he asked coldly, “What are you doing following me?”
Qi Ying looked at him expectantly, feeling utterly wronged.
She didn’t want to climb so many floors with him either, but she couldn’t catch up no matter what she did, and she couldn’t even call out to him.
The school bell rang shrilly, and Ji Rang frowned, saying, “Go back to class.”
Qi Ying caught her breath for a moment, finally calming down, and released the railing to continue walking uphill.
Ji Rang gritted his teeth, “Didn’t you hear me say ‘Go back to class’?!”
Qi Ying reached the step in front of him and tilted her head slightly. She was still panting, her lips moist and red. He wondered if it was because of the sweat from running, but Ji Rang felt that her faint strawberry scent was even stronger.
It made him restless.
Qi Ying held out her hand to him.
In her palm lay a strawberry-flavored gummy candy.
His heart pounded twice, like a drumbeat, the echo reverberating within him.
After a long while, he finally found his voice: “You followed me just to give me this?”
She tilted her head and smiled sweetly at him, her star-like eyes seeming to say: Yes.
Ji Rang stared at the strawberry candy.
Because her palm was too warm, the sugar had melted, and the sweet strawberry scent evaporated into the air.
He muttered, “I don’t like candy.”
A faint pink tinge appeared on his pale palms; his fingers were white and slender, with delicate whorls visible at the tips.
After a moment, he reached out, took the candy, tore open the wrapper, and popped it into his mouth.
It was unbearably sweet.
Yet, inexplicably, it calmed his violent emotions.
Seeing him eat the candy, Qi Ying’s eyes crinkled with happiness. She glanced at her watch, realized class had started, opened her mouth, waved quickly at him, and ran off.
Ji Rang shouted, “Slow down!”
The sound of her footsteps quickly disappeared into the hallway, leaving only the sound of him eating the candy in the quiet.
The door to the rooftop was locked, but he had already obtained a key mold and made a copy. Unlocking it, a cool breeze rushed in.
Ji Rang finished the strawberry candy, rolled his tongue around in his mouth, then took out his phone and calmly called Ji Qian.
The call connected quickly. Before Ji Qian could speak, he asked in a low voice, “What do you mean?”
Ji Qian was silent for a moment before saying, “That photo has always been in Uncle’s wallet.”
Ji Rang chuckled and said sarcastically, “So? What are you trying to prove? That he’s nostalgic? Or that he feels guilty?”
Ji Qian sighed, “Don’t take it out on me. Do you think I wanted to take this job and tell you all this? It’s just that I’m the only one in the family who can contact you, so what can I do? If you don’t want to come back, fine. I’ll tell them you blocked me.”
Ji Rang said indifferently, “I’m hanging up.”
Ji Qian paused, but couldn’t help herself. In the last second before hanging up, she called out, “A Rang, Grandpa fainted again yesterday. He kept calling your name during the resuscitation.”
There was a long silence on the phone, so long that Ji Qian thought he was gone. She tentatively called out, “A Rang?”
After a long pause, she heard a mocking voice on the other end of the phone: “Have you forgotten? He’s the one who doesn’t recognize me.” He chuckled softly, “It’s your Ji family that doesn’t recognize me, the murderer.”
The breathing on the other end of the line became heavy. Ji Qian took a few deep breaths and said in a low voice, “No one thinks you are…”
Before she could finish, Ji Rang interrupted her impatiently, “Alright, stop bothering me with these things.”
He then hung up the phone.
The strawberry taste in his mouth had faded considerably, and the violent emotions he had suppressed resurfaced. Like thorny hooks, they tore at his internal organs from the bottom up.
He slowly squatted down, leaning on the railing. The wind on the rooftop made his loose school uniform rustle. He spoke softly, as if telling himself, “I’ll calm down, I’ll be fine after a while.”
A cacophony of reading sounds drifted from the classroom downstairs. After a long silence, he stood up.
His eyes, concealing the pain and anger, were replaced by a cold indifference.
The school building was empty; class had already been in session for twenty minutes. Without asking for permission, he entered through the back door of the classroom. The teacher, standing on the podium, roared, “Ji Rang! If you don’t want to attend class, don’t come in! You’re disturbing the other students!”
He ignored her, silently returning to his seat. He took out the first-year high school math textbook from his bag, smoothed the edges of the photograph he had been clutching, and tucked it into the book.
On that page, there was a drawing of a girl with a ponytail and a small strawberry.
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