Chapter 41 Dating Ducks

Before doing the third thing, Xia Cun had one more thing to do.

Event 2: I will go to the park to take photos with Jiang Song.

Unfortunately, after she made this decision, it rained for two days and only cleared up on the third day.

They agreed to meet in the park. Before leaving, Xia Lan sat on the sofa holding a pillow and looked at her sadly, with a look on her face that said, "You didn't go shopping with me at the supermarket because of Jiang Song." So, Xia Cun walked over and handed the camera to Xia Lan.

"Why, aren't you going on a date?"

"Can you take a photo of me and Jiang Song?"

Xia Lan was stunned. Xia Cun had never liked having her photo taken, or rather, being photographed. Ever since she was little, she had disliked appearing in front of the camera. Xia Qing had once suspected this was because she didn't want to leave any traces, but now it seemed she wanted to leave something behind.

Well, that's a rare opportunity. Xia Lan put on her camera and went on a date with Xia Cun.

The park was designated by Xia Cun. It was the park she had visited when she was following Jiang Song before. When she asked him to meet by the lake where he had sat before, she found that Jiang Song's expression was a little different. Maybe he was surprised by some coincidence, but he didn't say anything.

When they arrived, Jiang Song was already sitting on the steps, gazing at the lake. Seeing this, Xia Cun slowly stopped. She noticed that Jiang Song seemed a little blank and melancholy again.

The sound of a shutter suddenly rang out. When she turned around, Xia Lan was standing behind her, holding up a camera and taking pictures of Jiang Song. Seeing her turn around, she smiled and said, "I also want to experience the feeling of taking candid photos."

Then it was Xia Cun's turn to look at her with resentment, of course, still with that expressionless face, only his eyes conveyed his dissatisfaction. Xia Lan took advantage of her unpreparedness and took a photo of her. In the distance of the photo, Jiang Song happened to turn his head to look at them.

"Hey, Jiang Song spotted me again." Xia Lan laughed, "You're quite perceptive. It's a miracle you weren't spotted before."

Xia Cun didn't have time to express his dissatisfaction with her teasing. When he turned around, Jiang Song had already stood up and walked towards them.

He wasn't surprised by Xia Lan's presence, but simply called out to them. He had brought his camera with him because he was in the park taking photos. Seeing the other two standing still for some reason, he casually said, "There are ducks by the lake, we can go take some pictures."

"What duck? That's a mandarin duck." Xia Lan corrected him.

Jiang Song didn't understand what a mandarin duck was, so Xia Lan kindly explained it to him, saying it was "dating ducks." Of course, this was completely a lie. Jiang Song glanced at Xia Cun after hearing this slightly teasing answer, but she still had that calm expression.

“…”

Should have known this earlier. "Let's go take some pictures. I'm here to be the photographer today, and you're my models." No one is more straightforward than Xia Lan.

Jiang Song asked: "Model?"

"Of course, you guys are so cute, you can definitely give me some inspiration."

Xia Lan seemed genuinely in the mood, forcing the two of them to take photos. Soon, Jiang Song discovered the world's worst photographer: not Xia Lan, the photographer, but his subject, Xia Cun. She kept the same expression and pose for a long time.

When Xia Lan looked around the camera, he finally couldn't bear it anymore and asked the girl next to him with dissatisfaction: "Don't you like taking pictures with me?"

Xia Cun turned to look at him in confusion. She was confused because she was actually the mastermind behind today's incident.

"You don't even smile." He seemed to be accusing.

"I don't like to laugh."

"...Then I won't laugh anymore later."

"Then don't laugh."

“…”

Xia Lan found another good position and was about to take another picture of the two of them when she raised her eyebrows at the screen.

What did she miss? Why were the two little ducks inexplicably angry with each other?

But before she could figure it out, she heard a voice behind her, with a tone of obvious surprise: "Xiao Cun? This is..."

Xia Cun and Jiang Song looked towards the tree below. A tall, upright young man was also standing there like a tree, looking at them with some surprise. Then, their eyes drifted to Xia Lan's face, as she tried to convey a message with her large features, "You can't see me."

The facts were obviously the opposite. The man under the tree immediately looked at Xia Lan and said in a surprised tone: "It's you. You got a haircut."

“…”

Xia Lan's lucky E physique was at work. She ran into her ex-boyfriend on a rare trip out, the kind of ex-boyfriend for whom she had just drawn cute pictures some time ago.

The breakup between the two was amicable, so when Li Sui asked to go for a walk with her, Xia Lan didn't refuse. Of course, she also intended to give some space to the two quarrelsome dating ducks.

Xia Cun took the camera from Xia Lan and sat under the tree to look at the photos he had just taken.

Seeing that she was silent, Jiang Song asked quietly, "So Mr. Duck and Sister Xia Lan know each other?"

Because he also saw the photo of Li Sui holding a duck, he named him Mr. Duck. He also named Mr. Mizuno Mr. Spy. He is such a bad person.

"Aren't you going to be angry with me?" Xia Cun asked him.

"No way?" He said guiltily, "I just said I don't want to laugh anymore..."

Xia Cun turned to look at him, and Jiang Song suddenly turned around and sat facing her, then put his face close to her and asked, "Did you find anything?"

She looked carefully and said, "I noticed you were smiling again."

“…”

That's too much.

"It's not that kind of thing." Jiang Song couldn't help but turn his head to the right, revealing the left side of his face. When he and Xia Cun took pictures today, he deliberately stood to her left, so she always saw his right side profile. Only then did he take the initiative to show his left face.

Xia Cun looked carefully, then moved closer to stare at his left ear hidden under his hair, and finally discovered that the earrings there were not simply one gold and one silver, but one gold and one silver Gromit big-head earrings.

She couldn't help but widen her eyes and praised blankly: "かわいい."

Then Jiang Song suddenly sat up straight as if he had grown bones, and like a magician, he held a small gift box in his palm and handed it to her: "This is also very cute."

Xia Cun took it from his palm and opened the box. Inside lay two Gromit pendants, each as small as a peanut and in perfect proportion. Her eyelashes fluttered twice, and she looked up and asked, "Is this a gift too?"

"Hmm..." Because Xia Cun didn't have pierced ears, he had to give her a pendant.

"Why do you keep giving me gifts?"

"I wanted to give you a gift anyway, and..." He said this with a somewhat embarrassed look, "You gave me the best gift in the world."

He couldn't think of a better or more precious gift than that, and didn't know what to give her except these little things.

What a failure. Jiang Song couldn't laugh when he thought of this.

But Xia Cun suddenly said to him: "Classmate Jiang Song, you have actually given me the best gift in the world."

Jiang Song seemed unaware of this and asked, puzzled, "What gift?"

"secret."

"Another secret..."

Jiang Song lowered his head like a deflated balloon.

But Xia Cun said, "Everyone has secrets." This is what Mr. Mizuno said to her at the beginning. "You have secrets too, right?"

Jiang Song looked up in surprise. The girl stared at him without blinking. He subconsciously avoided her gaze and did not answer. But then, without warning, she looked at him and said, "Student Jiang Song, you have many shortcomings."

The words came out cleanly and clearly, without any foreshadowing, as if they had been cut directly from another scene. Jiang Song's head seemed to be buzzing with excitement at the sudden words, and after a moment's pause, he finally reacted. With a slightly aggrieved and bewildered look, he asked her, "Why are you suddenly saying this to me?"

"Because it suddenly occurred to me." Thinking of secrets led to thinking of concealment, and thinking of concealment led to thinking that Jiang Song was a very dishonest person.

“…”

Now, in addition to feeling wronged, he was also a little sulky, as if he thought her words were very unfair: "Hi doi... That's unreasonable."

He just said that he gave her the best gift in the world, and the next second he suddenly said that he had many shortcomings. It doesn't make sense.

A deep sense of dissatisfaction welled up in him, and he turned away in frustration. The sun was so bright, the ducks were so noisy, the shadows of the trees were so chaotic; everything was becoming unbearable. If he were alone, he'd probably be frantically shifting positions, but in the park, he could only hug his knees and gaze anxiously at the lake.

One minute passed, then two minutes, and the girl remained silent, showing no sign of trying to coax him. Finally, at the third minute, Jiang Song turned his head to look at her and muttered, "You have your flaws, too."

"I know."

"..." Jiang Song had originally just said it casually out of revenge, but he didn't expect her to respond so straightforwardly, which made him even more frustrated. "What do you know?"

"It's very confusing to know that I jump a lot."

"That's not a flaw." That's cute.

"Then you know I'm stingy."

“This is…”

Her voice was as low as a mosquito's, as if she was afraid she would hear it clearly, but Xia Cun obviously heard it clearly, because she said: "But you are also very stingy."

Jiang Song was silent, and finally accepted this shortcoming and asked vaguely, "Then what else?" It seemed like he was asking for advice humbly.

Xia Cun looked at him for a long time, and then said kindly, "I don't want to discourage you too much." Because she knew that Jiang Song would soon face a big blow.

However, her good intentions had little effect because she didn't know that saying this would actually be more hurtful.

Jiang Song sank to his knees like an ostrich because of these words, and a dark cloud seemed to hang over his head. After a long while, he muttered to himself: "...好きだと思ってたのに."

The complaint was vague and light, as if it was blown away by the wind, but the wind must have been blowing from his side to her side, because Xia Cun heard clearly what he said.

I thought you liked me...

He said so.

Event 4: I will change the content of Event 3.

"Good きだよ."

I like you, she said.

The Japanese pronunciation is still that rigid and pronounced word by word, like the most primitive robot speaking.

Jiang Song also seemed to have turned into a robot, his whole body stiffening, as if cast under some kind of freezing spell. It took him a long time to understand what he was saying. He finally raised his head from between his knees, but when he looked around, the jellyfish-like girl had disappeared.

The park grew quiet, as if the children had stopped fighting and the elderly had stopped talking loudly. But perhaps nothing had changed. Only Jiang Song felt that the airbag that had been enveloping him was leaking air. The air around him was empty, with only the sound of the leaking air.

Is he daydreaming?

Nothing has happened yet. Is he just waiting here for classmate Xia Cun to come?

He got up in a hurry and stood at the foot of the tree, looking around blankly. There was no sign of the girl on the path. He turned and looked in the other direction. Xia Lan was coming back alone from that direction.

Seeing him, Xia Lan asked, "Where is Xia Zunxing?"

Jiang Song's breath hitched, and after a moment, she finally released her overwhelming emotions, her breathing becoming a little rapid. This wasn't a daydream; he really hadn't responded to her. She must have been incredibly sad and angry.

Jiang Song put his hand to his burning forehead, scratched his hair back in frustration, and finally squatted down, holding his head and muttering to Xia Lan, "I made her angry."

Xia Lan took advantage of his frustration and quickly opened the camera to take a few pictures of the broken handsome boy. Then she squatted in front of the boy, pushed her glasses, and said seriously, "Talk to me, classmate Jiang Song."

Jiang Song suddenly looked up, his hair was messy because he had messed it up, and his eyes were slightly red.

Hmmm…

Why not take another photo?

Xia Lan thought unreliably, but since the situation had already been established, she had no choice but to take people to find a place to talk.

The two chatted for a while, and at the end, Xia Lan pointed in the opposite direction from where she had just come and said, "I'm tired, you go look over there."

The boy ran away immediately. She narrowed her eyes behind her glasses.

She is indeed a naive person. If she is smart, she will find that the camera is back in her hands.

Okay! Time to hit the supermarket!

I still have to talk to my kids.