Chapter 11 Chapter 11 Making a Mountain of a Mountain

All the violent emotions last night disappeared completely after taking the pills prescribed by Dr. Hailin. When Li Jinglang woke up the next day, he was calm as if nothing had happened. Even the scar on his face could be treated as an accidental incident.

Even if Zhou Su pulled him aside for questioning early in the morning, he could just deal with it perfunctorily.

"Did you accidentally rub it?"

"The model machine wasn't built properly," Li Jinglang explained calmly, as if it were a common occurrence. "It got out of control."

"Why do you keep making this thing when it's so dangerous?" Zhou Su frowned nervously. "There are so many on the market, why do you have to take the risk and make it yourself? It's so scary."

"If it weren't dangerous, how could anyone take it seriously enough to create a competition? It would have been thrown into the trash like scrap metal long ago."

"You kid." Zhou Su couldn't refute him, and turned to the aunt who was making breakfast, "Sister Chen, can you help me get that medicine box?"

"Okay."

A response came from the kitchen. Li Jinglang pursed his lips and took a step back to block Sister Chen's steps.

"No need." He said nonchalantly, not even wanting to say a few more words. "I'm too late. I'm leaving now."

"You don't want to eat breakfast?" Sister Chen called him from behind, "Grab some before you go."

Li Jinglang didn't pause. He pulled the coat off the hanger in smooth movements, changed his shoes, opened the door and ignored everyone's voices.

"I'll go give him some." Sister Chen turned her head to look at Zhou Su again, rubbing her hands, at a loss.

"Don't worry about him." Zhou Su waved his hands angrily, "If he doesn't eat, he'll starve."

"How can your health be good if you don't eat all day?" Sister Chen has been here for several years and treats Li Jinglang like her own child. "That won't work."

Zhou Su sighed: "I can't control him. Let's wait for Ning Yue to come back. Then we'll see if he dares to act like this again."

"Alas... this child... is so pitiful. My heart aches whenever I see him."

Sister Chen sighed, but Zhou Su had already gotten used to it.

"You said Ning Yue is a gentle child, how can she deal with this little devil." Zhou Su poured a glass of milk, sat down, spitting jam on the bread and chatting with Sister Chen.

"Ning Yue was able to make all the children in the courtyard obey her when she was young. Maybe her career is booming now. I think it's a good thing for her to come back and spend a few days with Jing Lang."

Sister Chen still remembers the days when she took care of Tang Ningyue when she was a child. She was the boss in the yard and was very powerful. Now she thinks she was right about her.

"Alas... No matter how powerful Ning Yue is, she can't take care of Jing Lang for his entire life. Besides, she will be busy soon and won't have time to look after him in the future. We can't let him delay the child, right?"

"Jinglang is still young, he will be fine in the future."

"I hope so."

-

Ever since Li Jinglang started driving to school, the distance from home to school has been significantly shortened. Today's morning class was a practical class, and when everyone gathered in the laboratory, Lu Yi was eating buns at the door.

Li Jinglang looked relatively normal today. Although his expression was still blank, at least he wasn't like yesterday, with his cold, glaring eyes that looked like he wanted to take a bite of everyone. Lu Yi quietly stuffed the last bite of the bun into her mouth and followed him.

"Why are you here so early again?"

"Drive." He shook the keys in his hand and answered calmly, as if the person with a gloomy face yesterday was not him.

"You..." Lu Yi opened his mouth but didn't dare to respond.

"What?" He lowered his head to start the device without looking at him.

"Why, why are you so..." Lu Yi scratched his head and laughed awkwardly twice, but his gaze forced his laughter back into his mouth.

"What?"

"How can it be so normal?" Lu Yi couldn't help but said it out loud.

"Are you sick?"

"No." Lu Yi turned to face him and sat down on the chair next to him. The more he looked at him, the more he felt something was wrong. "Brother Lang, are you okay?"

"What could be the problem?" Li Jinglang's patience was running out.

Lu Yi tilted his head back, widening his eyes, glancing at him again and again out of the corner of his eye, but he said nothing. He was a little frightened by the sudden change of weather.

Sometimes Lu Yi didn't quite understand Li Jinglang's judgment of things. Previously, Beining was hit by a typhoon and suffered heavy rain. The windows of the dormitory were not closed and were blown into pieces by the wind and poured into the room. He rushed to save Lu Yi's life, and his body was covered with bloodstains from the scratches of glass. He was nonchalant and disdainful of Lu Yi who was making a fuss, and told him to shut up and not disturb his peace. He slept in the dormitory for a few days to heal his injuries before going home, saying it was no big deal.

Li Jinglang's expression at that time made Lu Yi feel that even if the sky fell, his first reaction would be "Shut up, why are you shouting?", it was just the sky falling.

But Lu Yi now felt that the sky above Li Jinglang's head must have collapsed.

He carefully accompanied Li Jinglang from the laboratory to the third teaching building for class, and went to the restaurant at the school gate for lunch at noon. He was very normal until the end of class in the evening, so normal that Lu Yi felt more nervous than when he persuaded him yesterday.

But in the evening, Li Jinglang still drove back by himself. The beautiful sister who always took him back before did not come, neither in the morning nor in the evening.

Lu Yi was afraid that something might happen to him, so he followed him all the way to the parking lot, but was eventually ruthlessly driven away.

"You want to go home with me?"

After unlocking the car, Li Jinglang stopped and finally glanced at him.

"Brother Lang, please don't be like this. Tell me what's wrong, okay? I'll help you through any obstacle, no matter how hard you try. Don't scare me."

"Are you sick?" Li Jinglang frowned as he watched his exaggerated performance and wanted to throw the car keys in his hand at his face.

"Did you... have a fight with that sister?"

“....”

The air was still for a moment, and the humid air in the underground garage quickly spread around.

"Get out of here now."

Li Jinglang opened the car door and got in, leaving a light tone that made Lu Yi feel that he was guilty.

"Wait, wait." Lu Yi grabbed his car window and raised his hands in surrender before he could get angry. "Brother Lang, just listen to me. You know how many girlfriends I've dated. Just give in and apologize, and everything will be resolved. Your stubborn temper will only make things worse. Girls are easy to please."

Li Jinglang chuckled after hearing what he thought was the most ridiculous words in his life. If giving in and apologizing could solve the problem, he would not have become what he is today.

"Do you think she cares about me that much?" He lowered his head and raised his bandaged hand. "She should have known about this injury a long time ago. My mother wouldn't have kept it from her. Do you think she cares about me?"

"...Maybe she was too busy to come." Lu Yi tried to explain. He didn't know much about what happened between them. Apart from seeing her pick him up, this was the first time he heard anything about her from Li Jinglang. "Didn't she pick you up every day before? She was so nice to you, even bringing breakfast and..."

"I was deceived by her in the same way before." Li Jinglang sneered, "You don't need to think of any solution for me. You have already exhausted all the solutions you can think of. It's useless. It's useless at all."

Ten years is nothing.

"What if she changes?"

Lu Yi looked at him with burning eyes, "She just came back recently, didn't she? I haven't seen her here before. Brother Lang, people change. Not to mention a few years, even a few months can make a huge difference."

"Haven't you changed too?"

-

Li Jinglang couldn't sleep until three in the morning that night. Lu Yi was right, he had changed.

While he was condemning Tang Ningyue, he forgot that he had also changed.

The sink was filled with cold water. He put one hand in it, and the cold touch went straight into his heart along his fingertips. Blood on the solidified scratch melted into the water, which was particularly conspicuous in the clear water.

Two minutes ago, Tang Ningyue posted a circle of friends. A group of people were having a meal at a campsite. She was standing next to Duan Jiayu with a bright smile.

Calling her was impulsive, and my chaotic heartbeat and nervous breathing calmed down with her greeting.

"Jinglang?" She called him softly, without any anger or annoyance in her voice. It was just an ordinary call. Li Jinglang was a little surprised.

"Jinglang, what's wrong?" Not hearing his voice, she asked again, "Why aren't you talking? Are you feeling unwell?"

Li Jinglang's head was buzzing, and he was speechless. His throat felt like it was filled with a mouthful of extremely thick honey, sweet and greasy. He couldn't spit it out or swallow it, and it was stuck there, making his whole body feel uncomfortable. "Jinglang? If you don't say anything, I'll hang up, okay?" she coaxed, her voice amplified in the humid bathroom, and he felt a little breathless.

After calming down for a few seconds, he finally spoke, pretending to be calm: "I agree with Duan Jiayu's matter."

The sudden words left Tang Ningyue confused: "What did you say? What do you mean?"

"Exchange." His arms trembled slightly as he tried to calm his overactive nerves.

Tang Ningyue was so noisy that she didn't even find a quiet place to talk to him. "What do you want to exchange?"

"blacklist."

"Blacklist?" She seemed to have suddenly remembered something, and she dragged out the words. "Ah...you're talking about this," she suddenly laughed. "I was just kidding, why did you take it so seriously? You're still a child?"

“....”

The temperature in the bathroom dropped. With a splash, Li Jinglang pulled his hand out of the cold water and propped it on the edge of the sink through the cold porcelain tiles. The wound had reopened due to the force and was still aching.

On the other end of the phone, it was quite lively, with beer bottles clinking and laughter mixed together. It didn't seem like a good time to reminisce about the past.

"Tang Ningyue." It was the first time he called her name since she came back, and his voice echoed in the empty tiled bathroom.

"Hmm?" She was still chattering around him, seemingly not hearing what he was saying. "What's wrong?"

The other end of the line was filled with a cacophony of voices, and he wasn't sure if she could hear what he was saying. Li Jinglang looked at himself in the mirror and found himself increasingly ridiculous, even more ridiculous than any clown on a movie channel.

She was right, he was the one who always made a fuss.

A few days ago, he swore to Dr. Hailin that she was treating him very well now. Now it seems that he was just deceiving himself. She had not changed, not at all. He just added a thick filter to her.

He was the only one who expected that she had changed, but his hope was dashed and he still didn't want to believe it.

"It's okay." Li Jinglang clenched his fist until he felt the bloody wound in his palm burst open again, "I won't bother you anymore."

"Okay." Her voice was still gentle, like a child's bedtime soothing channel, "Then you should go to bed early. Don't stay up late all the time. It's not good for your health. Remember to take your medicine..."

His arms dropped, and he didn't have the strength to hold them up to listen to the rest of her words.

The person on the other end seemed to notice that he wasn't listening. After a few seconds of silence, her voice came out from the echoing bathroom again.

"Goodnight, Kyōrō."

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