Chapter 2 Taking You Home "You 'Le' is it pronounced 'yue' or...?"

"What did Li Leshan say?" Han Jiang asked incredulously when he heard about the matter, not expecting Jiang Yueming to get involved in such a thing.

"If he can't say it, what else can he say?" Jiang Yueming was annoyed by the questions. He didn't care what Li Leshan said; he was determined to control the situation.

"What was his reaction? He had to show some reaction, right?" Han Jiang persisted.

Jiang Yueming carefully considered what happened yesterday afternoon. What was his reaction...? What was Li Leshan's reaction? That handsome face, which was always expressionless, paused for a moment after hearing his words, "Wait for me after school tomorrow." His long eyelashes trembled, and a trace of confusion flashed in his eyes. Then, as if looking at some rare species, he gave him a deep look, and then... with his schoolbag on his back, he silently turned and walked away.

"They walked away with their backpacks on, like they were treating a lunatic," Jiang Yueming summarized.

Han Jiang's expression instantly became exactly the same as Li Leshan's yesterday. He shook his head and turned away as if looking at a lunatic.

During afternoon math class, amidst the chirping of cicadas and the creaking of the ceiling fan, Jiang Yueming sat in the last row, dozing off. The math teacher was explaining multiplication, and Jiang Yueming was doing the problems in his dream. Everyone experiences spring drowsiness, and Jiang Yueming sometimes wondered why he felt sleepy in all four seasons.

Until Yin Guiying's stern face appeared at the window, she grabbed Jiang Yueming by the ear and made him stand outside the door, listening to the math teacher tirelessly reciting addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division on the podium...

In fact, Jiang Yueming still struggles to memorize the multiplication table.

"Can't you give your teacher a break?" Yin Guiying said sternly. She both loved and "hated" Jiang Yueming. As the homeroom teacher, she needed to understand each student's family situation. She knew about Jiang Yueming's family situation and felt sorry for him, so she usually educated him gently. Because the child wasn't bad at heart, and was surprisingly loyal, he was just too much of a worry.

Jiang Yueming nodded hurriedly, his gaze sweeping over the clock in the classroom. The minute hand was about to reach 59, making him a little anxious. What worried him even more was that Yin Guiying showed no sign of leaving. Judging by this, she was going to lecture him for at least five minutes. From failing every subject in last month's monthly exams to why he hadn't done yesterday's homework, Jiang Yueming knew he had to do something; he remembered his important task.

"Teacher Yin," Jiang Yueming suddenly interrupted her, and as the bell rang, he dashed downstairs at top speed without looking back: "I need to pee—"

Yin Guiying was cut off from her words by this young man. Seemingly exasperated, she stomped her high heels and said, "Jiang Yueming, the toilet is on the left!"

Why is that kid running downstairs?!

But Jiang Yueming never heard her say anything else, and even if he did, his steps wouldn't stop. Class One, Class One, Class One, Jiang Yueming silently repeated the class name in his mind. Li Leshan definitely had to wait for him; weren't they saying that top students left late…?

Finally, he saw the class sign for Class 1. Jiang Yueming slammed on the brakes, his gaze sweeping over the classroom again and again—first row, second row, third row…seventh row…

no.

That face was so handsome it looked like it was studded with a hundred diamonds.

Jiang Yueming looked around the class to see if he recognized anyone, but there wasn't a single one. It wasn't that he was unpopular; it was just that Jiang Yueming couldn't bring himself to know people like that. With his bottom-of-the-class grades, he couldn't possibly hang out with the top students in the class.

After checking it for the third time, he sighed, feeling as dejected as if he had lost a game. He turned his head and met a pair of calm eyes.

Li Leshan didn't seem puzzled by his arrival. He pointed to the class sign for Class Two, and even if Jiang Yueming was stupid, he could tell what it meant. Recalling the numbers on yesterday's test paper, he felt like donating his eyes.

"You're in Class Two, did you see me a while ago?" Jiang Yueming asked, a little embarrassed.

So, Li Leshan saw everything he'd been doing—his anxious, pacing back and forth at the door, even squatting there? He saw it all, and didn't even bother to remind him? He just stood there like he was an idiot, watching?

However, Jiang Yueming was particularly easygoing and didn't take it to heart. He gestured to Li Leshan and said, "Come on, I'll take you home."

Li Leshan didn't follow him. Instead, he gestured something at him. It was probably sign language, something Jiang Yueming seemed to have seen on TV. But Jiang Yueming had no idea what Li Leshan was gesturing.

"Huh? What?" Jiang Yueming could only stand there dumbfounded, like someone who was illiterate.

Li Leshan stared at him for a while, seemingly helpless, then took out a piece of paper from his bag and wrote a few large characters on it, "Why?"

“Because…” Jiang Yueming, usually so straightforward, spoke indirectly for the first time, “it’s on the way.”

Yes, it's on the way!

It's just along the way. They're all in the same alley, they all pass by Lijiang Bridge and the old street entrance, where else could the road turn?

Li Leshan was silent for a while, then lowered his head and wrote another line: "Are you different from them?"

"Them...?" Jiang Yueming wondered, then belatedly realized, "The 'them' you're not referring to, are you? You mean Wang Hao?! You're comparing me to Wang Hao?!"

After receiving an affirmative answer, Jiang Yueming felt like he wanted to die. He was extremely indignant and wanted to find someone to reason with him, but even if he was right, he couldn't explain himself. How could this person think of him as the same as Wang Hao? What did they think of him, Jiang Yueming?

Jiang Yueming angrily snatched the pen from Li Leshan's hand. He didn't say anything this time, and how could he speak when he was sulking? He scribbled a few crooked characters on the paper: "I, Jiang Yueming from Class 4, never bully anyone!"

He then added three exclamation marks indignantly to emphasize his point.

However, when his handwriting is placed next to Li Leshan's, it's a complete mismatch; one is neat and elegant, while the other looks like a dog's scrawle. When Han Jiang first saw Jiang Yueming's handwriting, he almost thought it was his dog that had come out and written it.

So until much later, Li Leshan always thought his name was "Jiang Mingyue" because the characters Jiang Yueming wrote were densely packed together, with one large and one small character crammed together, making him genuinely believe it was "Mingyue" (bright moon). However, after learning his real name, Li Leshan didn't tell Jiang Yueming, afraid the boy would get angry, and so he never mentioned the wrong name again.

That made sense. Seeing Jiang Yueming's angry expression, Li Leshan believed him. He genuinely seemed to want nothing to do with Wang Hao. However, Li Leshan wasn't entirely convinced by Jiang Yueming's "on the way" answer.

That day after school, Wang Hao and his group were still waiting at the school gate. The surrounding children kept their distance when they saw this. Jiang Yueming saw Wang Hao's shifty-eyed look from afar. He put his arm around Li Leshan's shoulder and walked out of the school gate in a generous manner.

Li Leshan didn't break free from him, letting Jiang Yueming hold him like that. Jiang Yueming was a head taller than him, so he had to look up slightly to see him clearly. Looking at Jiang Yueming's nonchalant expression, Li Leshan lowered his eyes.

"Li Leshan, come with me to buy some stickers." Jiang Yueming himself doesn't play with these things; they're for little girls. Xu Qing insisted that he buy a whole set as an apology for last time.

However, Jiang Yueming remembered that he was buying stickers, but he completely forgot about it the next minute. He went to try his luck at the lottery. It cost 50 cents to try, and the grand prize was a palm-sized remote-controlled race car with a blue and white paint job, which seemed like a "divine car" to Jiang Yueming. He suddenly felt a sense of belonging to the few coins in his pocket, and he donated them all to the lottery box, completely forgetting about Xu Qing's stickers.

The convenience store was packed with children, mostly students just out of school. It was crowded, the air thick with the sweet smell of snacks, sweat, and dust. Someone stepped on whose shoe, someone accidentally elbowed whose elbow. Jiang Yueming finally emerged from the crowd, let out a long sigh, and handed Li Leshan two pieces of bubble gum.

This is a participation prize.

Forget about the grand prize, Jiang Yueming had never even seen a second prize. The third prize was a few round cards printed with "Princess Pearl," and Jiang Yueming had never even seen anything else.

Wang Hao finally spotted Li Leshan in the crowd, followed by Jiang Yueming beside him. Seeing this person made him stop in his tracks. He stared at the two of them with a gloomy look for a while, thinking it was just a coincidence, and was very dissatisfied that he had let Li Leshan go this time.

Seeing Wang Hao slowly slip away, Jiang Yueming clenched her fists, feeling extremely annoyed: "If Wang Hao bullies you again next time, tell me."

He suddenly remembered that Li Leshan couldn't speak, so he asked, "How do you say 'bully' in your sign language?"

Li Leshan obediently gestured to Jiang Yueming. With his long, slender fingers, he clearly and accurately demonstrated the sign language for "bullying": make a fist with one hand and strike the fist twice with the back of the other hand.

"Wait, wait, wait." Jiang Yueming hadn't even seen it clearly when something seemed to have flashed by. He recalled the action and repeated it, feeling that he could imitate it about four or five parts correctly. "Okay! Come find me later and show me this gesture, and I'll definitely help you!"

Jiang Yueming said he would indeed take Li Leshan home from beginning to end. At this time of day, he would usually stay at the convenience store to see who had won the toy race car, or go to Han Jiang's house to play for a while and tease Han Jiang's dog.

But today, he was like a bodyguard, never leaving Li Leshan's side. The setting sun shone on the Lijiang River, making it sparkle. Jiang Yueming walked on the pedestrian walkway on the bridge, looking around as he went, and he kept pulling Li Leshan along to look at the scenery.

Jiang Yueming is an extremely outgoing person; there's never a dull moment when he's around.

"Why is your name Li Leshan? Is your 'Le' pronounced 'yue' or 'le'?"

Li Leshan glanced at him indifferently, making no attempt to use sign language. Even if he did, Jiang Yueming wouldn't understand. He hadn't wanted to engage with Jiang Yueming because he felt there was no need to answer this question. However, unable to resist the man's curious gaze, after crossing the Lijiang Bridge, he could only helplessly point to the left, towards Leshan Square.

"Would you like some roasted chestnuts?" Jiang Yueming looked in the direction Li Leshan was pointing and saw the words "Old Wang's Signature Roasted Chestnuts".

Seeing that Li Leshan didn't respond, Jiang Yueming asked again, looking rather clueless, "Is that a grilled sausage? Do you want a meat sausage or a corn sausage?"

Li Leshan didn't want to waste any more time arguing with him, and he lowered his hand, which had been pointing at Leshan Square. Talking to this guy was exhausting.

"Oh, oh!" Jiang Yueming suddenly understood, realized what was going on, raised an eyebrow, and couldn't stop laughing. "Are you referring to Leshan Square? Li Leshan, your name is really unique."

Looking at the smile on his face, Li Leshan felt a stirring in his heart. He thought Jiang Yueming was a bit foolish.

What's so special about this name? Jiang Yueming probably couldn't have imagined that the "Le" in his name didn't mean happiness, and the "Shan" didn't imply crossing mountains. His father hadn't thought that far ahead when naming him; for a child he didn't really want, giving him a proper name was already a good thing. As for why it was "Le Shan" instead of "Yue Shan," it was simply because his name was pronounced the same way as the "Le" in Leshan Square. That's all.

A note from the author:

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Thank you, Tree Baby, for the rocket launcher! And thank you, Whale Fall Baby, for the nutrient solution!

Tips for delaying return:

Li Leshan expresses himself entirely through sign language. To make it easier to read, some expressions use phrases like "Li Leshan said," which is essentially equivalent to "Li Leshan is using sign language." [hug]