Chapter 3 Vegetable Buns, Meat Buns, Pan-Fried Buns: Jiang Yueming's Serious Business...

Jiang Yueming's incessant chatter finally stopped. Li Leshan stopped and looked up, pointing to the old-style residential building in front of him.

Jiang Yueming looked up and asked, "Which floor do you live on?"

Li Leshan raised one hand, his five fingers spread open.

Fifth floor. Jiang Yueming murmured to himself. The distance between their homes was indeed quite close, only 200 meters. Jiang Yueming had never imagined that he lived so close to Li Leshan's house. They even went to the same elementary school, yet they had barely run into each other. But now, Jiang Yueming grinned, it would be difficult for them not to see each other.

“Then I’m leaving, Li Leshan,” Jiang Yueming suddenly remembered something, touched his pocket, and looked up sharply, “The stickers Xu Qing asked me to take…!”

Jiang Yueming hadn't even thought about it!

He had long forgotten about that stack of pink and green fancy paper slips at the convenience store. Xu Qing finally agreed to say a few words to him, but Jiang Yueming had already plunged into the crowd of people participating in the lottery and hadn't come out since.

Just as Jiang Yueming was wondering whether to turn back, Li Leshan suddenly pulled out a stack of stickers from his pocket—ten stickers in total. Each sticker had about ten pictures on it, all in pink and green, depicting flowers, grass, and little girls with braided pigtails.

"Th...thank you!" Jiang Yueming took the sticker. No wonder Li Leshan could get first place in the grade. He couldn't even match Li Leshan's thoughtfulness.

“You bought too many. Just give Xu Qing two.” Jiang Yueming counted the stickers, pondering what to treat Li Leshan to. “Can the rest be given to my little sister? She likes playing with these.”

Jiang Yueming's younger sister, who is also his aunt's biological daughter. She is four years old and her name is Tiantian. Tiantian is her nickname; her real name is "Lin Yanxi," which is a very artistic name, but it has nothing to do with the little girl. The little girl has been quite mischievous since she was little. Cui Cui said that she learned it from her brother, but Jiang Yueming firmly denied it.

Li Leshan didn't answer, but simply pointed upstairs, indicating that he should go home.

Jiang Yueming nodded hurriedly, "I'll treat you to dinner later. Aunt Wang's spicy soup is especially fragrant and delicious."

He had barely finished speaking when he continued, "Remember to wait for me tomorrow morning, at 7:10!"

Tomorrow morning?

Li Leshan paused. He really wanted to ask why there was a tomorrow morning, but explaining was too troublesome—he couldn't understand sign language, and writing was too much trouble. The thought only lingered in his mind before he gave up. Much later, when the two talked about their childhood, they realized that the only way they could get together during that period was because Jiang Yueming could talk, and he couldn't understand sign language. And because he found it troublesome, he let this silly boy do everything.

Jiang Yueming held the sticker with a happy heart. He waved to Li Leshan and turned to run home. Thinking about it, he realized it was all thanks to Wang Hao; otherwise, the two of them wouldn't have gotten together because of this.

"Cui Cui!" Jiang Yueming realized he had forgotten his keys again and called up from downstairs. He had left in a hurry today and left his keys on the table. However, he didn't know where Cui Cui was. Cui Cui didn't call out, but Tian Tian did. The person slowly poked her head out. Judging from her height, Tian Tian probably had to stand on a small stool to barely stick her head out from the balcony.

Seeing the little girl's pigtails swaying precariously, Jiang Yueming became extremely anxious and shouted again, "Tian Tian! Get down here and stay away from the balcony!"

Jiang Yueming only breathed a sigh of relief when the little pigtail slowly disappeared from the balcony.

At the dinner table, Jiang Yueming said with lingering fear, "Auntie, can you please control your daughter? She almost scared me to death just now."

Lin Cuiqin pretended to be angry and patted Tian Tian's head: "Don't get so close to the balcony next time, look how scared your brother is."

Sweetie didn't respond; she just kept picking at her rice in her small bowl.

"You're back so early today. I was cooking in the kitchen and didn't hear you," Lin Cuiqin said. Usually, Jiang Yueming doesn't get home until almost 7:30, so it's unusual that he's back at 6:00 today.

"Aren't you going to have fun today?" Lin Cuiqin teased him.

"I don't usually just run around and play, okay? That's all serious business." Watching the lottery is serious business, what if I win? Playing with Han Jiang's dog is serious business, what if the dog runs away with him? Taking Li Leshan home today is definitely serious business.

To cheer Tian Tian up, Jiang Yueming took out two stickers from his pocket. Sure enough, the little girl immediately cheered, quickly finished her meal, and ran to play on the sofa.

After finishing his meal, Jiang Yueming immediately went into his room. He held up the sticker paper and looked at it again and again. Suddenly, as if he remembered something, he ran out again, shouting, "Cui Cui, I'm going downstairs to play for a while!"

Lin Cuiqin's voice rang out from the kitchen: "Remember to be home by 9:30—"

"Okay!" Jiang Yueming scurried downstairs in her plastic slippers. The old-fashioned color TV in the convenience store downstairs was showing a children's channel. Jiang Yueming happily leaned on the counter, not buying anything, but picking out the program. "Grandpa, TV5, I want to watch sports!"

Grandpa Zhou adjusted his reading glasses, handed Jiang Yueming two packets of spicy strips, and switched the TV channel back to the sports channel. The elderly people in this alley all liked Jiang Yueming; they thought the young man was kind-hearted and lively. Jiang Yueming especially enjoyed talking and chatting with them, and the elderly people loved spending time with him.

Although Jiang Yueming is still quite young, she doesn't really like watching cartoons. She can watch things like Armor Hero, but she prefers watching sports. Her idol is Liu Xiang. When Liu Xiang won the gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, Jiang Yueming was happier than anyone else, banging drums and gongs. She was so excited that she ran and jumped around at home, and no matter how much Lin Cuiqin called her, she couldn't stop.

However, he didn't come here simply to watch TV, since he can watch TV at home, nor was it to save Cui Cui some electricity. He had something more important to do.

Jiang Yueming stared at the TV for a while, then couldn't help but ask, "Grandpa, when is Grandma coming back?"

"Your grandma is doing square dancing in Leshan Square," Grandpa Zhou said slowly, fanning himself with a palm leaf fan.

"When will she be back?" Jiang Yueming asked anxiously.

"It should be at least 8:30."

Jiang Yueming waited patiently for a while longer, and finally his grandmother returned carrying a red silk fan. He stopped watching TV and followed the old woman eagerly into the convenience store.

The key point is this: he came to learn sign language. His grandmother used to be a teacher at a special education institution, but that was a long time ago. Now she's retired and spends her free time dancing in the square and playing mahjong. Jiang Yueming waited patiently for so long precisely because of this.

"Grandma, how do you say 'I'll take you to breakfast' in sign language?" Jiang Yueming asked.

"Then, how do you say 'Wait for me after school' in sign language?"

Grandma didn't know what Jiang Yueming was up to, but she let him be. After all, the kid had so many mischievous ideas every day, who knew what he'd do or play next? But seeing him so earnestly trying to learn something, she was happy to teach him. She rummaged through drawers and cabinets, found a yellowed book called "Simple Sign Language Illustrated Guide," and handed it to Jiang Yueming, telling him to take a good look and learn it properly.

Learning sign language is actually quite simple, but it requires a lot of practice.

Jiang Yueming was engrossed in the book; if he were that focused on his studies, he wouldn't be struggling to memorize the multiplication tables now. However, Jiang Yueming wanted to have a proper conversation with Li Leshan. Although Li Leshan could hear him, Jiang Yueming didn't understand what Li Leshan was saying, which left him feeling a little uneasy.

The book had illustrations and text explanations, but Jiang Yueming still found the hand gestures and symbols a headache to remember. He lay sprawled on the hard bed, tossing and turning, feeling as if half a century had passed, only to find himself still on the first page when he checked the page number again…

The cicadas chirping outside was irritating. The summer night breeze blew in through the window, and Jiang Yueming slapped her arm. Too late, the mosquitoes had already flown away.

Finally, he drifted off to sleep in bed, only to be woken up early the next morning by the sounds of people selling steamed buns downstairs—"vegetable buns, meat buns, pan-fried buns!" Every time he heard this, Jiang Yueming could sleep peacefully for another twenty minutes, because it was seven o'clock. He usually didn't get out of bed until seven twenty.

Suddenly, Jiang Yueming abruptly sat up from the wooden bed, glanced at the time, and saw it was seven o'clock.

He still remembered that the time he had agreed with Li Leshan was 7:10.

Looking at the alarm clock again, it stood quietly on the table, not daring to ring at all. Jiang Yueming didn't have time to complain about the alarm clock. Without even taking off her shorts, she quickly put on her school uniform pants, brushing her teeth while getting dressed. Finally, she arrived at Li Leshan's building at 7:13, three minutes late, panting heavily.

"Li Leshan!" Jiang Yueming called out from a distance.

Li Leshan looked up at the sound and saw a person stumbling towards him. The messy hair was very noticeable, and the awkward school uniform collar was also an eyesore.

It seems the silliness has escalated again.

Li Leshan had a bit of OCD, so he could only frown and keep a cold face until Jiang Yueming ran up to him. Then, he reached out and deftly turned up and smoothed out the awkward collar for him.

This gesture flattered Jiang Yueming, who knew that only Cui Cui usually treated him this way. He thought to himself, Li Leshan is actually a pretty good person; although he seems cold, he's not that difficult to get along with.

Actually, it was simply that Li Leshan didn't like it.

“Let’s go, I’ll take you to eat,” Jiang Yueming said, recalling the few words his grandmother had taught him the night before, along with some he had consulted in a book.

He stopped, turned around, and faced Li Leshan. A slightly nervous smile appeared on his face, and then he awkwardly raised his hands.

He awkwardly and haltingly used sign language, which meant: "I-take-you-to-eat-dinner".

Every gesture was hesitant, his eyes glancing frequently into the void, as if trying to recall the diagrams in the book. This stumbling earnestness stunned Li Leshan. Jiang Yueming thought he hadn't understood what she was trying to do, and suddenly felt a little embarrassed. What was that saying again? "Trying to show off one's skills in front of Guan Yu—overestimating one's abilities."

But no one can learn something from the start. Jiang Yueming was very optimistic and thought that once he got closer to Li Leshan, he could just have Li Leshan teach him. He was sure he would learn very quickly and wouldn't cause Li Leshan any trouble.

“Come on, Aunt Wang’s breakfast shop is two streets away.” Jiang Yueming waved to Li Leshan.

Li Leshan paused for a moment before following. He silently watched the figure ahead, his back soaked with sweat from running, and the image of those awkward yet earnest hands that had been trying so hard to express themselves lingered in his mind.

Something seemed to gently stir my heart, creating an indescribable ripple.

He himself had clumsily practiced sign language in front of the mirror again and again, in order to survive and to find a way to communicate in this world where no one could speak. He didn't understand why this boy in front of him, who could run, jump, and shout loudly, was also trying so hard to enter his silence.

A note from the author:

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Thank you Tara Baby for the nutrient solution! Thank you Whale Fall Baby for the nutrient solution!

The title of this chapter has almost nothing to do with the content... but I'll still write one, because I'm hungry [glasses]