Chapter 24

"Beep beep beep... Hello, this is the number you have dialed..."

I didn't answer.

Jiang Jiawei glanced at the time; it was almost ten o'clock.

Mu Zhengxi said that if the score is still tied at the end of the second half, then the game will go into overtime.

"sister."

"sister?"

"ah?"

Jiang Jiayi looked at Jiang Jiawei, who was sitting on the sofa biting her finger and lost in thought, appearing absent-minded ever since she came back. "What's wrong with you?"

Jiang Jiawei shook her head, "No."

Do you want to take a shower?

"I already showered this evening."

"Then I'll turn on the washing machine."

"Um."

"Come and eat some tangyuan (sweet rice balls)."

Jiang Weichao brought out the cooked glutinous rice balls from the kitchen.

Jiang Jia placed her hands on the table and exclaimed, "Wow, Dad, did you rub that?"

"No, it was Brother Chao who brought it to us. He brought it from his hometown." Jiang Weichao glanced at Jiang Jiawei, who was unusually not the first to arrive. "Jiajia, time to eat tangyuan."

"They're here."

What happened to your sister?

Jiang Weichao asked Jiang Jiayi using lip reading.

Jiang Jiayi shook her head and pursed her lips, indicating that she had no solution either.

Jiang Jiawei, who walked over slowly, picked up the bowl, sniffed it, and asked, "What kind of filling is it?"

"There are sesame seeds and peanuts too." Jiang Weichao raised his hand to signal the two children who were about to eat to stop. "Wait a minute, have you forgotten what we haven't done yet?"

Jiang Jiawei and Jiang Jiayi looked at each other, glancing in their mother's direction. The incense had been lit; their mother had already eaten the glutinous rice balls and called their grandparents to say hello.

"What have you forgotten?"

Jiang Jiawei: "Didn't you call your aunt?"

Jiang Jiayi: "Your aunt called in the evening, didn't you remember?"

"The lights downstairs aren't off?"

"We haven't taken any photos yet!"

Jiang Jiawei and Jiang Jiayi suddenly remembered that they couldn't forget their family's ritual: taking a family photo every winter solstice, as their mother had suggested.

"We'll film it tomorrow."

Everyone agrees it's good.

Jiang Jiawei bit into a sesame-filled glutinous rice ball and put it into Jiang Jiayi's bowl.

The phone rang.

She quickly stood up. "I'll come get you."

The next second, he deflated again.

"Your father is looking for you."

"Who's calling me?" Jiang Weichao felt his phone in his pocket; it was charging in the room.

"Uncle Lin."

Jiang Jiawei returned to the dining table.

Jiang Weichao finished the phone call.

"I'm going to Uncle Lin's house. You two eat first and then go to bed early."

Jiang Jiawei cautioned, "Don't drink too much."

"Know."

Jiang Jiawei and Jiang Jiayi tacitly picked up their bowls and sat down on the sofa. They turned on the TV, played rock-paper-scissors, and Jiang Jiawei won the remote control. They changed the channel and found that CCTV-5 was broadcasting a football match.

What is La Liga?

"Sis, would you like some yogurt?"

"drink."

Want some potato chips?

"I want the barbecue flavor, could you get me a blanket?"

Jiang Jiayi walked into the room, rolled up her blanket and threw it to him, glancing at the TV, "When did you start watching football?"

"I'm curious."

"Hey, isn't Jung-hee playing in the final today? Did he win? Did he call?"

"No."

Jiang Jiayi lay on the sofa, "Anyway, I think he's definitely going to win."

Jiang Jiawei glanced at her younger brother, who trusted Mu Zhengxi implicitly, and asked curiously, "Why?"

"There's no reason why, that's just how I feel."

Well, although... she felt the same way.

When Jiang Jiawei returned from the bathroom, she found Jiang Jiayi asleep on the sofa. She glanced at the quartz clock; it was 11:30.

"Jiayi?"

Jiang Jiawei took her blanket and covered him with it.

The phone rang.

He rushed forward and picked it up, saying, "Hey."

"Jiang Jiawei".

The pronunciation was like writing on frosted paper, difficult and hoarse beyond recognition.

Are you alright???

"It's nothing." Mu Zhengxi swallowed hard after saying just two words, disgusted with his hoarse voice. He didn't want to talk, but he still had to explain, "I was at the hospital getting a checkup when you called me, so I didn't hear you."

"It's okay, you have a cold?"

Mu Zhengxi raised his hand and looked at the back of it, then said in a deliberately casual tone, "I probably caught it from you."

Jiang Jiawei listened to his joke, but found it hard to laugh because Mu Zhengxi's voice sounded really serious.

Is he still in the hospital?

"right."

"Are you alone???"

He wasn't alone; the team doctor came with him. The other players were supposed to come too, but Mu Zhengxi had the coach stop them. It wasn't anything serious, and besides, he couldn't speak right now. Oh, and Mu Yashan was there too. She came with him. It was a bit late, and Mu Zhengxi had just asked the housekeeper to arrange a driver to take her home.

For Mu Zhengxi, speaking at such a long time was beyond his capacity at the moment, so he had to keep it brief.

"No, my family manager, oh, Uncle, and I were together too." Mu Zhengxi belatedly remembered the most crucial thing, "I won the game! Jiang Jiawei!" The raised voice almost made him faint, and he started coughing violently, damn pharyngitis.

Jiang Jiawei said nervously, "You, you shouldn't say anything."

Mu Zhengxi took a sip of water, calmed down, and slightly curled the corners of his mouth. "I won't tell you, you tell me." He leaned back against the pillow.

Jiang Jiawei was stunned for a moment. She asked, "What am I going to say?" Her original intention was to tell him to get some rest after hanging up the phone.

Mu Zhengxi stretched out his two long legs, dangled them together, and swung his feet, patiently waiting for the person on the other end of the phone to speak.

"I……"

The ward door opened.

Mu Zhengxi's displeasure at being interrupted was written all over his face, but when he saw that it was the nurse who came in to change his IV fluids, he had no choice but to give up.

"Wait a moment, just two minutes."

"Alright, go ahead and tell me."

Jiang Jiawei asked, "Did the match go smoothly? Besides the cold, were you injured?"

"I'm not injured." Mu Zhengxi felt he needed to say this. "I scored two goals, we won 2-1, and I was also named the best player."

"Really?! That's amazing!"

"Mmm mmm mmm mmm."

"Then we'll celebrate with you when you get back to Changqing."

Mu Zhengxi's eyes lit up, and he agreed.

"good."

Have you eaten tangyuan (sweet rice balls)?

"Um?"

Jiang Jiawei asked, "Today is the Winter Solstice. Do you eat tangyuan (sweet rice balls) or dumplings where you're from?"

Oh, it's the Winter Solstice. I haven't eaten anything. Does getting an IV drip count as eating?

“We ate tangyuan today. They were a gift from Zhenzhen’s boyfriend next door. Do you remember her? Zhenzhen came to our house once before. You’ve met her before.”

Oh Zhenzhen, he remembers her. She owns a nail salon and cosmetics shop. She even complimented him on how handsome he is. But what kind of filling are the glutinous rice balls?

"The glutinous rice balls are filled with sesame and peanuts. They were made by Lin Chao's mom herself. They're really big. My little brother ate five and couldn't eat anymore. My grandma said that after the winter solstice, he'll be a year older!"

Oh, so he and Jiang Jiawei are seventeen years old.

"I also want to cough cough, eat tangyuan (sweet rice balls)."

"Then I'll make it for you when you get back to Changqing."

Jiang Jiawei thought for a moment, "It rained heavily in Changqing this evening, a torrential downpour. Did it rain in Hanyang? Is the weather good there?"

Mu Zhengxi shook his head, then realized that Jiang Jiawei couldn't see him shaking his head. How annoying, this damn cold.

"But the weather forecast I saw yesterday said there would be no rain in the north."

“We’re having our school sports meet next week, so we don’t have to go to class from Monday to Wednesday.” Jiang Jiawei’s voice was as excited and joyful as a balloon about to take off when she said this. “Originally, they said they wouldn’t have it, but then our principal said we should still have it.”

"Oh, right, we bought a class T-shirt. Our class monitor's mom helped us order it. The girls' T-shirts are dark red, and the boys' are black. They have a design from our class printed on them. It was designed by one of the girls in our class. She's an art student and she's really good at drawing. Hmm... can you draw?"

...

What else is there to say?

"My brother and I were watching TV together, and he fell asleep on the sofa."

The sound of deep, even breathing filled the air.

"You fell asleep too?"

"Mu Zhengxi?"

The quartz clock chimed.

It's twelve o'clock.

Jiang Jiawei hung up the phone, got up from the sofa, and gently shook Jiang Jiayi's arm, "Jiayi."

"Jiayi."

The person with their eyes closed hummed through their nose.

"I'm going back to my room to sleep."

Jiang Jiawei grabbed his arm and pulled him up from the sofa.

Jiang Jia squinted, half asleep and half awake, and groggily searched for her slippers on the floor. After finally managing to slip them on, she yawned and, before entering the room, didn't forget to say, "Goodnight, sister."

"good evening."

“Hey Jia Yi.”

"Um?"

"Your brother Zhengxi won the game."

"Really?! I knew it!!"

Jiang Jiawei smiled at her younger brother, who had instantly perked up, turned off the TV, and went into her room, leaving the living room light on for Jiang Weichao.

On Saturday morning, after changing their clothes, they went to the photo studio across the street to take a family photo. They developed the photo and put it in the family album. Another winter solstice has passed.

Mu Zhengxi slept until the afternoon before waking up.

The lactic acid accumulated from excessive muscle exercise also awakens, and every bone in the body aches. It's as if the body has been rewritten, and it feels strangely creaky to control.

Xu Zizhao and Yan Yuheng came to see him.

Yan Yuheng: "Can you speak?"

Mu Zhengxi, who was drinking porridge, raised his eyelids slightly, as if to say, "Do you want me to talk?"

Yan Yuheng asked again, "What are you going to do? You won't be able to go on the study tour in a couple of days."

This Christmas holiday, the destination for the study tour for the second-year high school students was Australia in the Southern Hemisphere. Although participation was voluntary, parents had to ask the teacher in charge of the study tour for permission if they didn't go, which was extremely troublesome. So, unless there were special circumstances, they usually went by default.

Mu Zhengxi couldn't speak, relying entirely on his facial expressions to convey his disdain for the activity. Study tour? What's so great about it? We've been to Australia before.

I accidentally pulled on the IV line. Ugh, I still have an IV drip to get this afternoon. Annoying.

Wait a minute, now he has a perfect excuse to take leave.

Xu Zizhao sat down on the sofa and suddenly lost interest when he heard that Mu Zhengxi couldn't go. The three of them had been to Australia together when they were in sixth grade, and they were originally thinking of revisiting the place. But now that one person was missing, how could it be considered a revisit?

"If you're not going, what's the point of us going?"

Yan Yuheng also sat down. "He definitely can't go like this."

Mu Zhengxi nodded in complete agreement with his statement.

Yan Yuheng saw through him in a second, raised his hand and patted his bent knee, "You little rascal, you're secretly enjoying yourself, aren't you? You're hoping you won't go."

Mu Zhengxi raised his eyebrows and silently smiled.

Xu Zizhao clicked his tongue, and his thoughts changed accordingly. "Damn it, I'm not going either. Let's just wait until you're better, and then the three of us can go have some fun by ourselves."

Yan Yuheng glanced at Xu Zizhao, cruelly shattering his beautiful fantasy, "Your mom told my mom the day before yesterday that she felt the study tour was too short and that you should have spent the whole Christmas holiday there."

Could Sun Wukong possibly escape from the Five Fingers Mountain? That's wishful thinking.

"...She really is my own mother."

"Be grateful you weren't exiled to Africa."

"Going to Africa would be nice, maybe it would be more interesting."

"Then have your mom give Old Dan a suggestion next year."

"How about we go to South America?"

"You really do have an idea every second."

...

Mu Zhengxi clasped his hands behind his head, his battle-damaged voice pulling him out of the conversation, and he began to silently plot in his mind.