Chapter 82 Chapter 82 Bad news.

"Your mother asked you to go abroad?"

In the middle of the night, Ji Maili woke everyone up.

Chen Lu was upstairs answering the phone for a long time and didn't come down. Ji Maili went upstairs to look for him. When he reached the door, he just heard Chen Lu say, "I'm doing well in China. I don't want to go abroad."

Liang Lin asked Shen Lu: "Your mother wants you to go to her place?"

Chen Lu glanced at Ji Maili who was glaring at him and said, "Well, I don't have that plan."

Ji Maili was slapped for going abroad, and not long after that, Chen Lu's family asked him to go abroad again. He glared at Chen Lu and said, "You'd better not!"

Chen Lu really hadn't thought about going abroad, but his call was interrupted by Ji Maili just now, and he had to find time to talk to his mother.

In the next few days, whenever Ji Maili heard Chen Lu's phone ringing, he would be on high alert. At night, when Chen Lu was explaining a problem to Ji Maili, Ji Maili would stare at his phone in a daze.

Shen Lu talked for a long time without hearing a sound. Seeing that he was staring at his phone, Shen Lu hooked his chin with the end of a pen: "Look at me."

Ji Maili looked up at Chen Lu, and Chen Lu kissed him on the mouth: "When my mother and my brother went abroad, do you know why they didn't take me with them?"

Ji Maili used to feel distressed when talking about this, but now she feels a little relieved, relieved that he didn't leave: "Because Auntie can't take care of you and Brother Chen Duo together."

Shen Lu smiled and said, "I wanted to stay here myself."

Ji Maili: "Yourself? Why? Because of Uncle Shen?"

Chen Lu said, "Because I'm gone, I won't be able to see Mai Mai anymore."

Ji Maili looked at Chen Lu in surprise. For a second he suspected that Chen Lu was lying to him, but it was only for a second.

He couldn't say how good Chen Lu's life would be if he and his mother went abroad, but it was definitely better than living in a small, shabby house that cost 500 yuan to rent, sleeping on a palm-sized bed that creaked every time he turned over, and living a life with no one to take care of him.

Shen Lu pinched the back of his neck: "So, I didn't leave then, and I won't leave now. Now can you rest assured and finish the questions carefully?"

Ji Maili pursed her lips, her nose uncontrollably sore, and her eyes were suddenly covered by Chen Lu's hands: "Baby, I'm not saying this to make you cry. Can we save our developed tear glands for later use?"

Ji Maili sniffed: "When will it be useful?"

Chen Lu wanted to say something dirty, but because he still had to finish the test, he didn't bring it up: "For example, the day the test results came out."

-

No matter how hard Ji Maili tries to improve his grades, they are still far from enough. If he wants to get into university, he must start with the art exam. Fortunately, Ji Maili has been drawing since elementary school, so he has the basic skills.

In December, Ji Maili took his first art exam, but when he came back he heard bad news.

Chen Lu didn't want to go abroad, and his mother agreed, but on one condition: he had to go there to accompany her during the winter vacation this year. Bai He was very sad when Chen Lu refused to go with her. When she asked him to go there during the summer vacation last year, Chen Lu also refused because he was worried about Ji Maili.

This time no matter what he said, Baihe insisted on letting him pass.

Ji Maili frowned and asked, "Who will tutor me if you leave?"

Shen Lu: "Don't you have a mobile phone? Do you want to try online teaching?"

Ji Maili didn't want to experience it.

Ji Maili: "Can I go with you?"

Shen Lu also thought about taking him with him, but unfortunately: "Have you forgotten that you still have to take a school exam later?" Shen Lu was afraid that he would give up the exam, so he comforted him and said: "You will only be gone for a month and be back before school starts."

Ji Maili wasn't being unreasonable. Shen Lu had been separated from his mother for so long, so it was only natural for him to go and accompany her. However, he couldn't bear to do so: "Then I won't prepare a birthday present for you this year. You won't be spending your birthday with me anyway."

Ji Maili has been too busy recently to spare the time to prepare gifts. I was thinking about what he should prepare, but now that he's gone, it's a waste of time.

Ji Maili started to feel down after knowing that Chen Lu wouldn't be spending the winter break with him. One day, when Ji Huan came home from get off work, he saw that Ji Maili wasn't holding a book, nor was he working on a test paper upstairs. Instead, he was sitting downstairs in a daze. "Three minutes have finally passed?"

Ji Maili's eyes didn't move, he just sat there blankly: "Chen Lu is leaving."

The whole family knew that Shen Lu was going to his mother's house during the winter break. It was just a winter break, not that he would not be coming back. Ji Huan asked, "What next?"

"That's all." Ji Maili said, "My partner is leaving, and I'm just feeling a little melancholy."

Ji Huan rolled his eyes. Ever since he came out to his family, he had been saying "my girlfriend, my girlfriend" all the time, as if he was afraid someone would forget. It was annoying to hear that.

Ji Huan said, "The exam is coming up soon. If you keep feeling depressed, he'll leave this time and you'll be the next time."

Ji Maili suddenly glared at his sister: "Shut your crow mouth!"

-

On the day when the final exam results came out, Ji Maili fell into deep thought over his score of 340... Chen Lu's score was 693, half the difference between the two.

Zhou Luyang sat in front of Ji Maili and chattered, "Brother Mai is awesome! Three hundred and forty!"

Ji Maili was not happy at all: "How much is yours?"

Zhou Luyang: "Four hundred and two."

Ji Maili collapsed and slammed his head on the table: "I'm not even as tall as you."

Zhou Luyang didn't understand Ji Maili's back, but he was still laughing: "I did perform well this time."

Ji Maili kicked the leg of his stool: "Go away and show off!"

-

After Chen Lu left, Ji Maili first worked on the test papers that Chen Lu had left for him at home. Later, he called Zhou Luyang, Tao Dacheng and other people who were familiar with him and had better grades than him to his home, saying that he asked them to do their homework, but in fact he wanted to squeeze out all their usefulness. He would not let anyone go until he had explained a set of test papers to them.

Later, when he asked people to come again, they all claimed that they were busy and refused him.

On New Year's Day, Ji Maili didn't go anywhere. In the evening, Lin Shifei asked him to go out and set off fireworks. Ji Maili said weakly, "I don't want to be a light bulb."

Lin Shifei: "It's okay, we still have Tao Dacheng and Tao Sijie as our backup. You are not the only one left."

Ji Maili refused to go. Not long after he hung up the phone, Shen Lu called him via video: "Why don't you go set off the fireworks with Brother Fei and the others?"

In the video, Chen Lu was wearing a light yellow turtleneck sweater, unlike when he was here, where he either wore a school uniform or dark clothes. Suddenly seeing him wearing such soft clothes, Ji Maili felt like he was watching Chen Lu as a child. He smiled and said, "Aunt Bai bought this for you, right? She still likes you to wear this color."

Shen Lu pulled his collar: "Who knows what her hobbies are."

Ji Maili: "I'm raising you like a little girl."

Shen Lu laughed: "How do I look like a little girl?"

Ji Maili looked at Shen Lu and smiled: "Then you have to ask Aunt Bai."

In the end, Ji Maili did not go out with Lin Shifei and the others to set off fireworks. Instead, his sister got two strings of firecrackers from somewhere. When the clock struck twelve, they exploded in the yard with a bang, almost scaring Ji Maili to death.

On the sixth day of the New Year, Ji Maili came with his schoolbag and said he was going to Tao Dacheng's house to eat dumplings. After eating, he called home and said he would not go back today, saying that it was too late and too cold, so he would sleep at Shen Lu's house.

Ji Maili had been absent-minded for more than a day or two after Shen Lu left. Liang Lin knew that today was Shen Lu's birthday, so she ignored him.

It was already dark after eating dumplings at Tao Dacheng's house. Ji Maili was alone at Shen Lu's house with nothing to do. He just took out the test paper and was about to start writing when he suddenly heard some noise in the yard.

He had just video-called Chen Lu in the afternoon. It was impossible for him to come back suddenly. Could there be a thief in the middle of the night?

Ji Maili rushed into the kitchen and took a kitchen knife. Holding the knife, he walked to the door and waited for the thief to come in. The moment the door was opened from the outside, Ji Maili and the people outside were both stunned.

Ji Maili was holding a kitchen knife in his hand, and the man standing outside the door was holding an axe. The two of them stared at each other for a long time... It was not until the cold wind filled the room that Ji Maili reacted.

“…Uncle Shen?”

"...Maimai? It's you!" Shen Qianhe put down the axe in his hand: "I thought there was a thief in the house." Shen Qianhe looked at the kitchen knife in Ji Maili's hand: "What are you doing..."

Ji Maili quickly put down the knife: "I thought there was a thief too."

Shen Qianhe bent down and picked up the vegetables on the ground: "You kid, even if there are thieves, you can't use a kitchen knife. The crime is not punishable by death."

Ji Maili glanced at the axe standing at the foot of the wall: "You are still blaming me, but aren't you also holding a heavy weapon?"

Shen Qianhe was happy: "I just couldn't find anything suitable at the moment."

Coincidentally, Ji Maili also took the kitchen knife because he couldn't find a suitable one.

Shen Qianhe carried the vegetables into the house, and Ji Maili said, "Shen Lu is not at home."

Shen Qianhe: "I know, he went to his mother's place."

Ji Maili nodded and looked at the food in his hand: "Then... where did you come back from?"

Shen Qianhe lifted the plastic bag in his hand and said, "I went to buy vegetables specifically for his birthday. I called him at the market and found out he was at his mother's."

Ji Maili suddenly remembered that he was standing here yelling last year, asking why he didn't come back early to celebrate Chen Lu's birthday.

Shen Qianhe glanced at him as if on purpose and said, "I'll be obedient to your uncle and come back to celebrate his birthday this year. Unfortunately, he's not here. So what if he's not here? I drank with him last year, but it was boring. Let's have a drink together later."

Is drinking with Shen Lu boring?

Yeah, what's the point if you get drunk.

Ji Maili said, "I don't know how to drink."

Shen Qianhe took the kitchen knife from Ji Maili and went into the kitchen: "If you don't know how to do it, just lick it twice. You'll get it after a few licks. Look at how good Chen Lu's alcohol tolerance is. He learned that from licking since he was a child."