Chapter 37 Then I'll Smile More "You look a little silly when you smile."...

"Handsome, give me ten yuan's worth." Jiang Yueming stopped his bicycle with a smile next to a small stall.

The cutoff scores and results were released. Jiang Yueming successfully entered No. 1 High School with a score nine points higher than the cutoff. Lin Cuiqin was overjoyed; she said she never dared to dream of such a thing. Jiang Yueming teased her, saying she was too timid and should dream of Tsinghua or Peking University someday. Anyway, Lin Cuiqin rewarded Jiang Yueming with a brand-name bicycle.

After the No. 1 Middle School, the distance to the Iron Pagoda Elementary School was no longer so close. Walking was a bit too slow, but cycling was just right, taking fifteen minutes round trip, which was still very fast.

“You can’t finish it.” Li Leshan glanced at him quickly.

He had nothing to do during summer vacation, so he helped his grandmother sell mung bean cakes. They were all homemade by his grandmother, very delicious, and business was good. Compared to the older grandparents, uncles, and aunts, it was mostly young girls who came to the stall, mostly to see Li Leshan. Li Leshan was handsome and tall; just standing there, he was a shining living advertisement. Behind his back, they all secretly called him "that handsome little guy who can't talk."

"Can't I save it for tomorrow?" Jiang Yueming laughed. "I can eat it with you. Hurry up, don't dawdle."

He handed over ten yuan.

Li Leshan didn't take the money, but gestured to say, "No money needed."

Then he emphasized again, "You don't want money."

"That won't do." Jiang Yueming was actually quite pleased, feeling different from others, but he couldn't show it outwardly or outwardly. He couldn't take advantage of Li Leshan, so he shouted to his grandmother sitting to the side, "Grandma, you have to control Li Leshan, he's always like this!"

Grandma only then noticed Jiang Yueming's arrival. She slowly stood up from the stool, and upon seeing Jiang Yueming, she became much happier. She instructed, "Lele, quickly pack some food for Mingyue. It's free."

"Grandma, why are you like this too!" Jiang Yueming saw Li Leshan secretly curl the corners of his mouth. He skillfully handed Jiang Yueming a bag of mung bean cakes, with a hint of smugness on his face.

That look was as if to say, "See? Calling for grandma won't help."

"Really..." Jiang Yueming had no choice but to take it. Suddenly, he felt how heavy it was. Did Li Leshan load half the truck into it? This, this isn't right!

"Are you even going to do business anymore?!" Jiang Yueming said, puzzled. Had this guy gone crazy from doing business? Even if they were good friends, this was still unacceptable!

Li Leshan ignored him and didn't respond. There were other girls waiting in line behind them, so Jiang Yueming had to make way, stop his bicycle, and stand next to Li Leshan.

He can't do much. Ask him to do accounting? Jiang Yueming can't do that. Ask him to help hand things over; he's clumsy and blocks the way while standing in front of the cart. But at least he's handsome, so he can attract customers.

This is a legitimate customer solicitation! Not the kind where they lead you to a hotel from the train station entrance.

"Handsome young man, you're really popular." After everyone left, Jiang Yueming said from the side, her tone tinged with sourness, even more sour than a freshly picked green plum.

Li Leshan rarely gave him a look; he seemed a little surprised that Jiang Yueming would say such a thing, but it was probably just a joke. Clearly, there were more people after Jiang Yueming arrived.

"Don't be poor," Li Leshan said.

By evening, they could close up shop, and most of their goods had already been sold out. Grandma strolled slowly to the market to buy groceries, and Jiang Yueming helped her pack up the items, pushing the cart alongside Li Leshan.

"School's starting soon, and No. 1 Middle School is quite far from Sanxiang. You can ride in the back of my car then," Jiang Yueming said with a smile. He only had this one purpose for buying the car. He could drive himself, or at worst, walk, or even use Hanjiang's car, but he needed a new car to take Li Leshan with him.

Li Leshan glanced back at his bicycle. The back was empty. Before he could even use sign language, Jiang Yueming realized that his newly bought bicycle didn't have a seat yet! Where was Li Leshan supposed to sit?

"I'll install one later, don't worry, it'll definitely be the top-of-the-line version." Jiang Yueming patted the non-existent back seat of the car, which was for Li Leshan, not for anyone else. How could he not care? "Do you know Han Jiang's car? He decorated the seats with all sorts of fancy and luxurious decorations. He wasn't happy when I touched it last time, saying he wanted Xu Qing to sit in it. I'm planning to learn from him."

"Have you seen it?" Jiang Yueming asked.

Li Leshan shook his head.

"I'll introduce you to him another day." Jiang Yueming laughed. "That guy's cycling skills are terrible. Xu Qing is lucky to have ridden on his bike. It's her destiny to suffer a calamity she can't escape. Last time, he took me and we crashed into the green belt."

Jiang Yueming rolled up his trouser leg and pointed to his right calf, where there was a small scar. "See? My leg has a cut."

"It must hurt a lot," Li Leshan said after looking at it for a while.

"It doesn't hurt, it doesn't hurt," Jiang Yueming said hurriedly, having long forgotten the feeling. "It was actually quite funny back then. Han Jiang was in front of me, and he flipped over more hard than me, falling headfirst into the ditch."

Jiang Yueming kept talking, walking and talking the whole way. Luckily, he was a good talker, otherwise the two of them couldn't have walked in silence for half an hour on this long road.

"I'll help you carry it," Jiang Yueming said. Without saying a word, he carried the things from the car upstairs. Li Leshan's house was on the fifth floor, the top floor. Jiang Yueming didn't feel tired at all going up and down. After he was done, he lay down on Li Leshan's bed. Now this bed was practically half Jiang Yueming's bed, and he didn't feel out of place lying on it.

"Hey, Lele," Jiang Yueming said casually, "There's a performance at the square in a couple of days, let's go have some fun."

He now calls Li Leshan "Lele" without any problem. He doesn't feel awkward about it anymore. He might have felt a little uncomfortable when they first met, but now they're together every day and are so familiar with each other that calling him that is no problem.

Everyone who knows Li Leshan calls him that, his grandmother calls him that, and he can call him that too.

Li Leshan sat on the edge of the bed and nodded.

"Let's go to my house for dinner first, and then we can take Tian Tian to see it, okay?" Jiang Yueming suggested to him. "Tian Tian misses you. She was asking to play with you the other day."

Sweetie wanted a handsome guy, and she wanted her brother Leshan to hold her while watching the show, thinking it would be incredibly prestigious. But she was already in second grade, not kindergarten anymore, so how could she let Li Leshan hold her? The key point was that she didn't want Jiang Yueming to hold her, and Han Jiang was even further away; she only wanted Li Leshan to hold her.

Sweetie has grown taller over the years, not vertically, but horizontally, much faster than vertically. Li Leshan should think twice before taking her in.

Last year, they used a red brick to carve a height line at the entrance of the convenience store. When they went to compare heights again this year, they were already much taller than that line. They both grew quite a bit in the past year, practically competing to grow taller.

"Guess whether I've grown more or you've grown more this year?" Jiang Yueming covered the red thread to prevent Li Leshan from seeing.

Li Leshan pointed at Jiang Yueming.

"Tch," Jiang Yueming thought to himself, "he's quite self-aware. Do you know how tall I was last year?"

“1, 6, 7.” Li Leshan held up three numbers.

"Huh?" Jiang Yueming glanced at the line from before, and it really was a little short of 1.7 meters. He himself didn't know, so how would Li Leshan know? So, not believing it, he asked again, "And what about me this year?"

“172,” Li Leshan gestured again.

"Where did you find out?" Jiang Yueming asked in surprise.

Li Leshan smiled, his expression seemingly saying, "I knew it."

"Jiang Yueming, Leshan! How tall are you now?" Xiaoyu peeked out from behind the counter and asked them. Before Xiaoyu's head appeared, a red bow was swaying back and forth.

"You little rascal," Jiang Yueming exclaimed, displeased. "How come Li Leshan is all 'Brother Leshan,' but I'm just 'Jiang Yueming'? What's wrong with you? Aren't I your brother?"

He missed Xiaoyu when she was little. Back then, she would always follow him around calling him "brother," and she would be reluctant if he didn't let her. Now, the child has grown up and recognizes someone else as her brother.

"Because you're always so fierce." Xiaoyu made a face.

“Where am I…” Jiang Yueming frowned.

The man had already hidden under the counter, but his voice could still be heard: "He's already being very fierce!"

Jiang Yueming looked at Li Leshan with a blank expression, pointed to his own face, and thought to himself how harmless and innocent he looked. The elderly people in the neighborhood all praised him for being well-behaved. How was he fierce?

"Did Tian Tian stir up trouble again and say something bad about me?" Jiang Yueming finally realized.

When the two children got together, they could gossip about everyone in the neighborhood they didn't like. But Jiang Yueming was truly wronged, so wronged that there was nothing he could do! Everyone knew how much he doted on Tian Tian all day long; he practically treated her like royalty.

"Where did I go wrong?" Jiang Yueming asked from the bottom of her heart.

Li Leshan shook his head; he didn't think Jiang Yueming was fierce.

“Your face looks a bit cold when you don’t smile,” Li Leshan said in sign language.

"Oh..." Jiang Yueming's anger suddenly cooled down, and she didn't even think about refuting it. After a while, she smiled again: "Oh, yes, then I'll smile more."

Surprisingly, Jiang Yueming, a carefree and cheerful kid, has a face that looks a bit cold. Many people, even from miles away, might initially think he's a cool and aloof kid when they first see him, only to find his eyes crinkling into a smile the next second.

Li Leshan laughed too, "But you look a little silly when you laugh."

Jiang Yueming laughed and hooked his arm around Li Leshan's shoulder. He was a little taller than Li Leshan, so Li Leshan's head bent down. "Well done, Li Leshan, you've learned to tease me now."

He felt that someone like Li Leshan, if he really spoke, would probably have a sharp tongue. He was the kind of person whose words would surprise you if you didn't know them.

Li Leshan shook his head in his arms.

"Let's go back and find Tian Tian. Let her see you properly; she misses you terribly and makes a scene at home every day."

The two walked slowly away, but Jiang Yueming's voice could still be heard intermittently, "You still say I'm stupid? Didn't you just say I'm smart? You said I'm so smart..."