Chapter 17 Take your mar...

The next day, during lunch break, He Dongli sent a message to Jiang Xingyuan, saying that her exclusive date was probably out of the question.

Jiang Xingyuan quickly replied: "Oh. It's okay. I'll think of a way."

Not long after, she asked Dongli again: "No, you really contacted him for me, and he rejected you? What a damn ex-boyfriend."

He Dongli thought typing was too slow, so he just used voice input. "Well, I guess so. I pushed you to him, but... Anyway, in the end, we didn't reach an agreement. I think with his bad temper, he probably won't stick to the facts."

After sending the message, He Dongli added a second line, "If he sticks to the facts, just pretend you don't know and talk directly to his secretary."

At night, Jiang Xingyuan came to stay at He Dongli's place.

The Jiang family owned a restaurant, and their aunt was a good cook, but rice cooked from a separate pot was always more delicious. Whenever He Dongli's mother brought food to her daughter, Dongli would always call Jiang Xingyuan over to share, and over time, she started cooking some herself.

Braised beef ribs, chicken soup, three-cup chicken, sea bass stew—the skill and the meticulous organization of the side dishes made Jiang Xingyuan think that even if He Dongli hadn't gone through the arduous process of studying medicine, she might have become an outstanding chef. She was also very good at storage and display; there was nothing she couldn't handle, from lighting to plumbing.

But there are also times when things go wrong. He Dongli got off work too late, and the sea bass that Jiang Xingyuan brought over was prepared in her own shop and placed in a clay pot on the stove. The thing that He Dongli was most worried about finally happened.

When the sauce was being reduced over high heat, the casserole exploded.

He Dongli, with her ponytail held up by a shark clip, quickly turned off the fire while Jiang Xingyuan was jumping up and down in fear, and then placed the casserole on a stainless steel square plate with side dishes nearby.

In the end, I just had to give in and eat the beggar's version of sea bass stew.

As Jiang Xingyuan picked up a piece of fish, he continued the conversation that had been interrupted due to the outburst. To be more precise, it was her deadly barrage of questions: "So, he came to you and mistakenly thought the cigarettes belonged to Zou Yan."

"Well. Maybe more than that." He Dongli looked so cautious while picking out the fishbone, as if he was afraid of inserting the needle into the patient's stomach.

Jiang Xingyuan glanced at him and immediately understood, "So his defense was broken. He thought you and Zou Yan had done it."

He Dongli chewed the fish and felt that she had put too much pickled pepper today, which was a bit spicy. She choked and said, "You can be a little more tactful."

"Can being tactful change the fact that you two were fighting?"

"I didn't have a fight with him."

"Yeah, you should ask him. Who I'm with is none of your business!"

He Dongli was silent. She had said so. But Jiang Xingyuan didn't understand Zong Chi. He wasn't the type to quit when he saw a good opportunity. If you choked him, he would definitely retaliate double. If you said it was none of his business, he would definitely turn against you. Why not? That was why he could say he was determined to never let Zou Yan go.

Jiang Xingyuan found it amusing to listen, and he enjoyed watching the fun. "Zou Yan is obviously no match for Young Master Zong. Young Master Zong is so grand and impressive, with powerful servants leading the way wherever he goes. These two, one is a scholar and the other a soldier."

He Dongli was too tired to think about it anymore, but she felt a little guilty towards Zou Yan, who had unknowingly taken the blame for her. She felt a little embarrassed to mention it to him, but she also thought that if Zong Chi really went crazy, how could Zou Yan be his opponent?

No matter whether he is polite or not, he can't beat Zongchi.

When He Dongli was washing the pots and dishes, Jiang Xingyuan discovered that there was a pot of camellia in her room.

Only after asking did I find out the whole story.

"Hey, did Zong Chi come back to see you specifically? Otherwise, why is it such a coincidence?"

He Dongli admitted that she had thought about it, but both objective and subjective factors proved that they were not suitable.

Jiang Xingyuan was the judge. "That's just the way men are. If you have a suitor, at most he's just possessive, and maybe his territorial ambition is getting stronger. But if you leave your things with another man, or even stay overnight, then the nature of the matter is different."

"You don't know him."

"I don't know him, but I do know you." Jiang Xingyuan was puzzled. Dongli was usually very decisive about the opposite sex's advances. Even when forced by bureaucratic pressure to attend a blind date, she maintained a clear-headed attitude. "I can go, but only to save your face." Her work and abilities weren't at the point where she had to sacrifice her personal appearance or even her emotions.

However, as such a capable person, facing such a vague misunderstanding, she would rather not clarify herself.

The reason for not clarifying is naturally that the cost of clarification is greater.

Jiang Xingyuan exposed his friend, "You are afraid that he will know that you smoke because of him."

He Dongli remained silent. She couldn't tell her best friend. She didn't dare admit it at all, because Zong Chi would definitely threaten her and ask her why she broke her own principles. This alone would put He Dongli in a difficult position, and then Zong Chi, this madman, would definitely do something that she couldn't control. If she still knew him well.

After cleaning up the kitchen and drying his hands with paper towels, He Dongli remained noncommittal. "I just want to know what it feels like to be advised against something that's clearly harmful but doesn't listen."

"What does it feel like?"

"It's probably the quiet madness of living because you're going to die anyway."

Jiang Xingyuan smiled, and she thought back to the time when her teacher kept the class after class, and He Dongli blatantly left through the back door, feeling like a lone wolf.

Only with He Dongli did she feel a bit of the sexiness of the nerd beauties that were often talked about in the circle of friends.

After all, Zong Chi, who was always aggressive, was never able to win an argument with He Dongli. Even today, she doesn't shy away from saying to Dongli, "To be honest, many girls were jealous of you when we were in school, including me."

"How did you pursue Zong Chi?" Jiang Xingyuan still couldn't believe it. How could a nerd pursue this young master who was full of talk and had red lips?

At this point, there is nothing left to keep secret.

At the end of the first semester of his second year of high school, on Christmas Eve, Zong Chi confided his family problems to He Dongli for the first time. A few days later, on the day of the New Year's Day performance, gossip about Zong Chi suddenly spread around the school, claiming his parents were in an illicit marriage and that he was a bastard. His mother was a full twelve years younger than his father. He had come to No. 1 Middle School because he had been expelled from his previous school for fighting...

He Dongli was confused and was about to go find Zong Chi, but he was one step ahead. That night he asked her, "Who have you told me about this?"

He Dongli shook her head. She hadn't mentioned anyone.

In a fit of anger, Zong Chi interpreted He Dongli's cold and indifferent attitude of leaving early on Christmas Eve as her disdain to listen, and even misinterpreted it as the immorality of his parents' marriage.

He Dongli defended herself, saying that she didn't do that. No matter how disdainful she was, she would never take pleasure in spreading other people's family affairs.

What Zong Chi heard hinted at her disdain. He smiled contemptuously, attempting to justify his actions. "My parents' marriage wasn't illicit," he said. "My father's first marriage was arranged, and he and his ex-wife parted ways amicably. He and my mother were later on. My mother never interfered with anyone else's marriage, and my father married her openly. How could it be immoral or improper? How could being legally married be any less illicit than not being married?"

Zong Chi finished his argument in one breath, his chest heaving, a clear sign of his anger and tension.

He Dongli was stunned for a moment before he had to accept his last words about not getting married and it being improper.

On the covered bridge, she remained silent for a long time.

The wind blew like a drum. Zong Chi suddenly reached out his hand, not without realizing that he had said something wrong. "I'm sorry," He Dongli took a step back. He was too lazy to listen to what he wanted to say. There was no point in defending himself. He just told him, "I'm not that vicious, or I can't stand seeing others do well. No matter how loving or upright your parents are, it won't be a reason for me to be jealous of you..."

"Is that what I mean?"

"Aren't you?"

"He Dongli, I only told you about my family affairs."

"I don't particularly want to hear it."

“…”

"You said it, and I listened to it. That became your reason to doubt me."

"I didn't doubt you!"

"Then why are you coming here and saying all this? Are you trying to prove that your parents are right, or that someone else's parents are wrong?"

“…” Zong Chi was speechless. He stared at He Dongli for a few seconds, then turned and left.

After a few steps, he turned back and wanted to say something, but he swallowed it back. In the end, he only said, "He Dongli, from the first time we met, you have never looked down on me. You know it yourself. Never."

That night, He Dongli went back home and missed his bus stop.

She walked down and looked back, watching the night navigation lights flashing and moving across the starry sky. She thought that perhaps there was someone up there. If she looked down through the porthole, she would be so tiny that she looked like a tiny person.

Zong Chi originally planned to report to his parents before the Spring Festival. Not long after the Spring Festival, he won a silver medal in the provincial swimming competition for which he had been preparing for a long time.

For this, the school publicly commended him. However, Zong Chi inexplicably went to the window and took down his red list himself.

When his father's secretary came to the school to process his withdrawal, Xiaochi was nowhere to be found. He Dongli slipped through the dilapidated fence at the back door of the school swimming pool and found Zongchi in the closed and power-off pool.

It was dark all around, and He Dongli still remembered the smell of disinfectant in the swimming pool that day and the sound of water splashing as Zong Chi paddled his arms and legs back and forth.

He swam four circuits in a freestyle format, never breaking the water. He Dongli walked forward, finally settling on a patch of non-slip tiles in an open area next to the coaches' lounge. Next to it was the starting gun they used during training. It was the kind connected to a loudspeaker.

When He Dongli pulled the trigger, she thought the gun was dead. She couldn't explain why she did that in that moment: mischief, boredom, or curiosity. It was like when she was little, she hated school and called in sick, claiming she had eczema. She'd promised her parents she wouldn't eat candy or chocolate until her eczema healed, but to get to school a few days later, she'd sneak in one or two each day while her parents were at work.

Until one afternoon, she accidentally noticed the red dot on her father's DV camera was on. She didn't escape her parents' lectures, and they couldn't understand why their daughter, who always achieved top grades, would be so averse to studying. He Dongli finally returned to school with a clean slate. Even after missing a week due to sick leave, she still ranked first on the mock exam. However, she didn't give up her sweet tooth. Because it was the simplest form of rebellion.

Pull the trigger, and in a flash, the most serious command "Take your marks" suddenly rang out, followed by the gunshot like an arrow from a bow, and there was no turning back.

The person in the water broke through the waves, took off his goggles, wiped the water off his face, and looked clearly at the people on the shore. He said nothing.

The swimming pool was deserted, but it was stuffy enough, the kind that made your brain deprived of oxygen.

He Dongli silently returned the starting gun to its original position. She called out to the man in the water in a voice that was neither too loud nor too soft, telling him that his father's secretary was looking for him.

Zong Chi ignored her. He Dongli stood there alone for less than three minutes before turning around and leaving.

After a while, she heard the sound of someone wading out of the water. She turned back and saw Zong Chi skillfully turning on the lights in the pavilion. One by one, row by row, they flashed like a forest of bamboos breaking through the sea, until every corner was as bright as day.

The person who came back after turning on the light took off his swimming cap and shook his head. The water on his hair and face all went onto He Dongli's face and even his mouth.

She pursed her lips in grievance. The person involved was completely unaware. He continued to walk forward and came to his luggage. The slippers and towel were on the bag. Zong Chi wiped his body with the towel and was about to put his feet into the slippers, but he put them on the wrong way around. He only realized it after putting one on, and then he took them off as if nothing was going right. He kicked the shoes with his toes, and both shoes fell into the water.