Chapter 5 General

Tang Ningyue had a small gathering with Wen Xi and the others on the first day after returning to China, and there was no follow-up. No matter what invitations she received, she refused to go and said bluntly that she had to pick up her child at 8 o'clock and had no time to go.

"Does this child finish school this late every day?"

Wen Xi works as an art teacher at the Affiliated Middle School of Beining University. Although she lives across the street from Tang Ningyue, she has never seen her once. If she hadn't met Tang Ningyue in the university cafeteria today, she wouldn't have known that Tang Ningyue came to pick people up every day.

"Children love to learn."

Wen Xi was even more surprised at her care for Li Jinglang. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't figure out why he could surpass the status of the big-breasted male mothers around Tang Ningyue and get her exclusive care. Just thinking about his cold and dead eyes made her panic.

At such a young age, he was as indifferent as someone who had been guarding a grave in the wilderness for ten years.

"If your kitten isn't allowed to touch you, will you abuse it?" Tang Ningyue disagreed. It was unclear whether she didn't take the matter to heart or didn't take the person seriously.

Tang Ningyue was very tolerant, and her gentle personality remained unchanged. She picked up another piece of pork ribs and put it in her bowl. "Do you eat here every day?"

"Yes." She nodded, "But how come you have time to come today?"

"The company signed two new people. I came to take a look."

"Have you seen it? What was it like?"

"There's one who's pretty good, and he looks okay, but he's not very smart. He's a bit stupid, and he needs to be taught a lesson." Tang Ningyue chewed a mouthful of vegetables. "The other one is quite diligent and knows how to deal with things, but... he's probably about 80% pretentious."

"But if I can keep pretending, then it's not a bad idea."

The two smiled at each other, and Wen Xi nodded in tacit understanding.

"But the way you screen people, won't you develop an occupational disease when you fall in love again?"

"I haven't experienced what true love feels like for a long time." Tang Ningyue shook her head.

As for people, apart from satisfying their appetite and sexual needs, everything else is just a burden.

"Boring..." Tang Ningyue's faint, honeyed smile seemed to be just a social courtesy.

"You've just enjoyed the blessings of too many men." Wen Xi bit a piece of pastry, and the crumbs fell all over the plate. "What if I...eh?" Wen Xi shook off the crumbs in his hand and raised his chin towards Tang Ningyue.

"Jinglang?" Wen Xi called out to the opposite side.

"Um?"

Tang Ningyue followed her gaze and turned to look. Li Jinglang, dressed in a pure black suit, stood out in the crowd. Several girls in the long line occasionally glanced sideways, whispered and giggled with their companions, and exchanged glances. Tang Ningyue curled her lips in a faint smile but didn't call him.

When the person was about to pass by, Tang Ningyue slowly raised her head and looked at him, then looked away while he was stunned.

"Jinglang." Tang Ningyue called him softly across a few tables. Her voice was gentle and warmer than the sunshine in winter.

Although Wen Xi was a little afraid of him, he was her younger brother after all, and Tang Ningyue was here, looking at him with a kind face like the sun, so she softened her heart again.

"Jinglang, come and sit down." Wen Xi also called him and waved for him to come over.

The cafeteria was crowded and it was crowded during meal times. Li Jinglang didn't have much time to hesitate. He tightened his grip on the plate.

He didn't want to be so close to her here.

He raised his eyes slightly and glanced at Tang Ningyue. After that glance, she continued to lower her head and pick up the food on the plate without much reaction, but that was enough. He knew that if he offended her, she would definitely not let him off easily.

He has known this truth since he was a child.

Seeing him walking towards him, Wen Xi turned around again, "What day is it today? I can actually run into Jing Lang."

"Haven't you encountered this before?" Tang Ningyue asked casually.

"I haven't seen him often." Wen Xi shook his head. "This cafeteria is far from their new campus. Maybe he came here for class today."

A bowl of plain noodles was placed on the table before Wen Xi raised his voice again, his compassionate heart instantly aroused: "Why are you eating this? There's no meat at all?"

"There's nothing I want to eat." He lowered his head and sat down next to Tang Ningyue, quietly stirring the bowl of noodles.

"Would you like to try the newly opened pineapple beef? Wait here, I'll buy it for you." Wen Xi has always been a person who shows her emotions, and she can't stand seeing someone eating some bland noodles in front of her in a pitiful manner.

"No, thank you, Sister Wen Xi." He looked up and rejected her kindness.

He refused to eat, and Wen Xi couldn't persuade him. It was almost time for afternoon classes, and she couldn't stay any longer after dinner. She was also a little afraid to be with him. Before leaving, she bought a small piece of crispy pork and placed it next to Li Jinglang, then hurried away with her bag.

"Are you unhappy today?" Tang Ningyue was still drinking the mung bean smoothie slowly. She tilted her head and glanced at him. Perhaps she regarded his hesitation just now as evasion, so she was questioning him.

He paused, as if she had guessed his thoughts, then lowered his head and took a mouthful of noodles, "No."

"fine?"

"fine."

"OK."

Tang Ningyue nodded and didn't question him any further. The little boy had grown up and had his own ideas. She had nothing to say and didn't want to be an adult who made herself boring.

"If you're free next Monday, please go hiking with me," she said.

"Next week?" Li Jinglang hesitated, remembering the registration form for the Junshan outing that his instructor had sent to the group yesterday. "I..."

"You don't have classes that day, right?" She placed another small plate of barbecued pork in front of him, took out her phone, pulled up his class schedule and slid it over to show him.

The bright screen flashed into Li Jinglang's eyes, and the noodles in his chopsticks almost slipped out. There was only one evening class on Monday night on the colorful schedule, and Tang Ningyue was not blind.

Li Jinglang suddenly remembered that he lied to her last night and said that get out of class would end at 8 o'clock.

Having his thoughts exposed, he stopped chewing the greasy piece of meat and said with a straight lip line: "I didn't mean to waste your time."

Tang Ningyue lowered her head nonchalantly and picked up another piece of casserole tofu and put it into his bowl, "Of course I know you can't." She switched the screen again and didn't look at the class schedule again, as if she completely trusted him.

"You must have your reasons." She explained for him sympathetically.

“…”

Li Jinglang clenched the chopsticks in his hand and glanced at her sideways. She looked very similar to what he remembered, but she seemed like a completely different person.

Now she seemed to satisfy him in everything and listen to him in everything, as if she was not the one who left without looking back no matter how much Li Jinglang cried.

But his feelings told him that she hadn't changed, she was exactly the same as before, even worse.

"What about Tang Zhaoming?" he asked, his voice soft as a mosquito, as if he didn't expect any answer. "Do you treat him the same way?"

Tang Ningyue scrolled through her phone, not knowing what she was looking at. She chuckled and said, "He wishes."

The light in his eyes changed again.

"Eat quickly, don't you like this meat?" She picked up another piece of barbecued pork that was still dripping with oil and put it on his spoon. "Pay attention to a balanced diet, you look so thin."

As she spoke, Tang Ningyue picked up another piece of Shanghai greens with chopsticks and added it in.

After watching him finish eating, Tang Ningyue put down her chopsticks with satisfaction, "It's delicious, right?"

"Hmm." Li Jinglang held the chopsticks and stared at the scratch on the edge of the bowl. "Which mountain do you want to climb?"

"Junshan," she said, "Your school will also organize a trip. I've also asked Duan Jiayu to sign up. He's the boy I told you about yesterday."

Tang Ningyue found a few photographers to follow her and was ready to warm up on social media. With the halo of a prestigious school, she would get more traffic.

“I didn’t sign up.”

The chopsticks in his hand broke a noodle, and he let go again.

"It's okay, we won't follow the same route as them." Tang Ningyue had expected that he would not participate in such group activities, so she didn't take it to heart.

"But...Junshan is quite high. Are you physically fit?"

"....Average." he replied.

-

There was only one class in the afternoon, so Li Jinglang went to the library as usual after class.

There wasn't much heavy schoolwork that needed to be done in the library, it was just that there was a line between people in the library, there were no sounds of conversations like in the cafe, and the public area seemed to be an independent area.

He used to always go home, but now there is one more person in the house, and he can't stay quietly in the bedroom after returning home. Tang Ningyue always calls him out to chat.

He knew that this was the task Zhou Su assigned to her.

Tang Ningyue is knowledgeable and has high emotional intelligence. It is very pleasant to get along with her now. Li Jinglang sometimes has to remind himself to end the topic early, otherwise she will remind him that it is late and he should go to bed.

Li Jinglang remembered it the first time she reminded him. His blushing face and nervous swallowing when he turned his back to her made him feel ashamed.

He was clearly the first person to be abandoned in her life. The way she spoke, her actions, and the marks left on her neck all showed that they were no longer from the same world, and she was no longer his sister.

She was just completing the task Zhou Su gave her. Li Jinglang would remind himself every time he met her.

He should hate her, she treated him so badly.

But it seemed that wasting time in the library was pointless. When Tang Ningyue sent him a message at 5:10 that he had reached the school gate, he still came out.

She didn't prepare any drinks today, and as soon as they got in the car she said she wanted to take him to eat hot pot.

"Does Aunt Zhou usually let you eat these?"

“I rarely eat out.”

"Then let's break the rules today, secretly, okay?"

She seemed to have changed her lipstick, and the color of her lips was different from what she had at lunch.

Through the rearview mirror, his gaze moved up and fell into her eyes: "Are you going to betray her?"

"Betrayal?" Tang Ningyue laughed. "Is it that serious? Can't you just not tell her?"

"Do your kids nowadays have such a strong sense of morality?"

Her comment made Li Jinglang's heart stagnate, "I have been sick before, you... know..."

"I know." She stared at him, "Aunt Zhou told me that he's fine now, it's nothing serious. Zhaoming was always sick when he was a kid, but he's fine now."

Li Jinglang didn't say anything else and looked away. He didn't know how to explain his flawed psychological barrier, and he didn't know if she would accept it. When he was a child, she would be annoyed if he cried twice, but now when she talked about the past, she always turned black into white and cleared herself of all blame, as if all the consequences were his fault.

She should leave soon, just like before...

Li Jinglang can't eat spicy food very well, so Tang Ningyue ordered a shabu-shabu hotpot with pork belly, chicken and tomato. It was not spicy at all, which was obviously not in line with everyone's usual habit of ordering shabu-shabu hotpot.

"It doesn't matter, actually." He said, not wanting Tang Ningyue's special attention, "I can eat anything."

"Then why don't you always eat well?"

He was speechless in response to the truth, and subconsciously lowered his head in front of her: "...I won't do this next time."

"Go and help me prepare the dipping sauce. I need more chili." Tang Ningyue ordered him bluntly, forcing the relationship between them to be closer than that of the real siblings at the next table.

In order to repay her care, Li Jinglang leaned over and listened carefully to her request, then stood up to get the dipping sauce. When he came back, he also brought a cup of warm oat milk.

"Help me tie my apron again."

She asked, not as if she was treating him as a patient who needed special treatment, but as if it was just because of their close relationship.

The thin apron straps went around her back, and the black-edged straps were wrapped around his hands. Tang Ningyue lifted up her long hair, revealing her fair neck, and motioned him for help.

There were steaming square pots all around, and with the help of the heating, Li Jinglang still had a thin layer of sweat on his forehead even after taking off his down jacket.

The straps were fastened and he was finally able to sit down.

Tang Ningyue placed two slices of cooked tender beef on his plate with satisfaction.

"You're so good." She praised him.

"Eat quickly." She rewarded him again.

Li Jinglang's cheeks flushed red.

"I've been craving the taste of this restaurant for a long time when I was abroad." Tang Ningyue picked up another piece of tripe and put it into the boiling pot, pressing it gently with chopsticks.

Tang Ningyue had a new manicure on her hands, a nude lotus root pink color, and her fingertips were rounded and glowed softly under the light. Her other equally beautiful hand was replying to a WeChat message.

You can't do two things at once.

"It's cooked," he reminded her.

Tang Ningyue quickly put down her phone and took the bent tripe out of the pot. She was distracted for a moment and the tripe had slipped out of the chopsticks, and when she was about to pick it up, it rolled back into the boiling water.

"Oh..." The moment the tripe disappeared, Tang Ningyue subconsciously opened her mouth and let out a cry, but the tripe still slipped away mercilessly.

Unfortunately, within two seconds, the two slices of boiled tripe were poured into her dipping bowl through the colander.

One was the one she had just thrown away, and the other was the one he had ironed.

"I haven't eaten hotpot in a long time." Tang Ningyue shook her head. "It's all Tang Zhaoming's fault. He doesn't like it. No one wants to eat with me, and those people don't understand the fun of eating hotpot."

After listening to this, Li Jinglang put the duck intestines in the colander onto her plate.

"You are still the best." She smiled, not knowing who to compare him with.

Li Jinglang didn't pay much attention to his own meal. He helped Tang Ningyue to make mutton hot pot and shrimp balls over and over again, which made the boyfriend at the next table a little restless. He also took the serving chopsticks and served her attentively.

"Do you want to drink?" Tang Ningyue suggested halfway through the meal.

"Then I'll order now."

Li Jinglang took over the job naturally. The waiter came but only brought a bottle of low-alcohol fruit wine. He opened the can, inserted a straw and placed it in front of Tang Ningyue.

"Don't you want to drink?" she asked.

“Someone has to drive.”

"Just call a designated driver." Tang Ningyue said, then asked, "When did you take the driving test? During the summer vacation after the college entrance examination?"

"Yeah." He nodded.

"Why haven't I seen you drive one before?"

"...If you let me drive, then I will." He hesitated and didn't tell her that the car was his.

It was unknown how long Tang Ningyue had stayed after returning, but Zhou Su had already requisitioned Li Jinglang's car. Obviously, Zhou Su only notified Li Jinglang.

"So how are your skills? I almost vomited the last time I rode in the car driven by Duan Jiayu." Tang Ningyue complained while shaking her head.

"Average." That sentence again.

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