Chapter 64

The day after the college entrance examination ended, the students of Class 5, Grade 12 returned to school and took graduation photos together. Next to Lu Mingxiao stood a slender and tall boy from Class 4 next door. Zhuoran said, "After we take the photos, let's Photoshop Jiang Huaiyu's face onto the picture, so that everyone will be there!"

There was still some money left in the class fund, so the homeroom teacher, Chen Xiaoyan, added some more and took a group of children to a restaurant for a meal. The boys boldly ordered beer, but when Chen Xiaoyan found out, she sternly ordered that each person could only drink one glass. As a result, the whole class didn't even finish a case of beer.

Lu Mingxiao didn't like the taste of beer, so he didn't force himself to drink it just to act like an adult. He continued to drink his favorite sweet water.

The room was bustling with activity. Liang Jing was fighting with Zhang Cunmiao for the last shrimp, Zhuoran was "interviewing" the students with a lollipop, and another girl was filming everyone behind Zhuoran...

After the teachers left, the atmosphere became even more lively. The karaoke equipment in the private room never stopped. The sports committee member, who had hidden a bouquet of roses somewhere, suddenly took it out and boldly knelt down to confess his love to a female classmate.

The classmates immediately started to cheer and shout "Get together!" The classmates weren't trying to morally blackmail the girl, but they knew that the sports committee member and the girl had been having an affair for a while.

A confession is the clarion call of victory.

Lu Mingxiao sat in his seat and clapped along.

At times like these, I especially miss Jiang Xiaoyu.

...

“I always think, if only we had been more careful, if we hadn’t been discovered, you could have finished high school in Ancheng and then gone abroad. That way, we could have spent another year together.” Lu Mingxiao adjusted his headphones: “Hello? Little Fish, are you listening?”

After a while, Jiang Huaiyu's voice finally came through the earphones.

"Old Fish Baby just came over to talk to me, but I didn't dare to reply to you."

Baby fish...

Lu Mingxiao couldn't help but laugh out loud: "Who is it? Old Song, isn't it? Jiang Xiaoyu, you're really good at coming up with nicknames."

Jiang Huaiyu also laughed: "It's not very appropriate to call a baby 'Little Fish' that. As for your suggestion to be more cautious..."

"I was the one who couldn't help but confess first. If anyone wasn't careful enough, it was me. How come I didn't know before, Brother Xiao, that you were a bit sentimental?"

"Brother, that's called being thoughtful..."

Jiang Huaiyu's game character buried a row of seeds in the vegetable garden, and Lu Mingxiao followed behind him, scattering fertilizer. After burying a row of seeds, he followed with a handful of fertilizer. The transitions were smooth and the teamwork was excellent.

After planting the crops, Lu Mingxiao's character circled around Jiang Huaiyu.

"You sneaked over on the day of the college entrance exam, did Lao Song notice?"

"No," Jiang Huaiyu said. "I left as soon as you entered the examination room. I went back to the airport to wait for my flight and returned to Shanghai that night."

Lu Mingxiao calculated the time and felt a little sorry for her: "She went through almost a day and a night just to see me, and she didn't even get to say a word before going back."

There was a rustling sound coming from Jiang Huaiyu's side, as if she had turned over, bringing her voice closer to the microphone. Her voice, tinged with a muffled laugh, reached Lu Mingxiao's ears through the earphones, making it sound as if she were sleeping right next to him.

"Brother Xiao, it's worth it just to take a look."

Lu Mingxiao felt a pang of tenderness in his heart: "Jiang Xiaobao, come here, give me a hug."

The two little characters in the game hugged each other and spun around.

...

Song Jingliang bought Lu Mingxiao a laptop in advance, since he would need it in college anyway. Knowing that Lu Mingxiao liked to play games, he specially chose a high-configuration gaming laptop.

Lu Mingxiao said thank you for loving you, then turned around and opened his computer to steal Song Jingliang's cabbage. He no longer had to worry about the game crashing due to the young master's top-notch mount.

Checking grades is also convenient; there's no need to go to an internet cafe anymore.

The year Jiang Huaiyu transferred schools, Lu Mingxiao said he would repay the principal with a score of 730, but after the results came out, he still owed the principal 11 points.

719.

The moment the webpage loaded, Li Qing burst into tears of joy, hugging Lu Mingxiao and laughing and crying at the same time.

She hadn't received much formal education. After her mother passed away, her alcoholic father wouldn't let her continue her studies. Later, she was forced to marry a scoundrel. After escaping, she wandered aimlessly. In countless dreams, she would dream of classrooms, of teachers praising her intelligence and promising that she would become a college student.

When Lu Mingxiao's grades were poor, she never complained. Why should she expect her child to reach the heights she herself couldn't? She only thought about doing more work to support Lu Mingxiao as much as possible.

But now, her child is about to step into the landscape she has longed for for half her life.

She cried bitterly, yet laughed proudly.

Lu Mingxiao patted her back gently, just like she used to coax him when he was a child. The phone on the corner of the table still had the game interface on, the team voice chat was on, the vegetables in the garden were ripe, and Jiang Huaiyu was setting off cyber fireworks.

Before Li Qing could finish crying, her phone rang. The number was registered in Beijing.

She answered the phone, and after the other person said a few words, she forgot all about wiping her tears and stared blankly at Lu Mingxiao: "Dabao, she said she is an admissions officer from Peking University."

...

Although Lu Mingxiao wasn't the top scorer, he was still among the first tier of universities vying for talent. Li Qing's phone had been ringing non-stop for the past two days. The four parents discussed it via video call, and considering Lu Mingxiao's own ideas, they finally decided to apply to Peking University.

The matter was finally settled, but unrelated people kept coming to Lu Mingxiao. Some media outlets wanted to interview him, and even distant relatives from Lu Chuan's side wanted him to tutor their children...

"I need to go away for a couple of days..." Lu Mingxiao complained to Jiang Huaiyu about this, then suddenly remembered something, perked up, and sat up abruptly: "Xiaoyu, are you going out to play during summer vacation? Let's go together!"

Jiang Huaiyu was filling out the forms for school enrollment when she heard his suggestion. She hesitated for a moment: "Dad won't agree. There's no way to hide it. Even if we have different destinations, as long as we go out together, Dad won't agree."

Lu Mingxiao deflated again, turning over in bed: "So, before you leave, you really won't see me again?"

Jiang Huaiyu thought for a moment: "...Not necessarily."

Less than half an hour after Lu Mingxiao announced his results, Grandpa Jiang received the news. Such a momentous event, which could be considered to bring glory to the family, would not go unnoticed by the old man.

Sure enough, he quickly sent a message to Lu Mingxiao, asking him to come home and inviting Li Qing and Lu Chuan to join them. Although he hadn't noticed the subtle atmosphere between Lu Mingxiao and Jiang Huaiyu at the last New Year's family dinner, he could tell that the two children had a good relationship.

Therefore, he specifically proposed to hold a coming-of-age ceremony for both children, and to do it together.

Grandpa Jiang said, "You should show your face in public. Those who are present will be the connections you can use in the future. Right now, in Shanghai, the few promising young men, from the Zhou family and the Lin family, all have a good relationship with Huaiyu. You're not young anymore, you should start planning for your future."

The way these words are made makes it sound like Lu Mingxiao and Jiang Huaiyu are about to start vying for the throne, and they're even encouraging him to form factions.

Although the Jiang family does indeed have a "throne".

Lu Mingxiao was learning to cook when he answered the phone. He was preparing the sauce according to the proportions, and he put the phone on speakerphone and put it aside. His hands didn't stop moving, and he burst out laughing as soon as he heard what Grandpa Jiang said.

He also said that when Jiang Huaiyu said "not necessarily" that day, it turned out he was referring to this.

"You said you'd hold some kind of coming-of-age ceremony for us." Lu Mingxiao scoffed, abandoning all pretense of respecting elders and children, and bluntly stated, "You don't really want to hold a coming-of-age ceremony for Jiang Huaiyu. You just want to show everyone in your circle how you treat me differently from him, so that some petty people will opportunistically ostracize Jiang Huaiyu. Plus, I'm studying in China, but he's going abroad to study, 'exiled' for four years, so when he comes back, he'll be out of the picture, right?"

His tone was languid, with a hint of mockery, but his words were sharp and cutting. Immediately, the sound of something being smashed came through the receiver—it sounded like porcelain. Jiang Qiheng was furious: "What did you say?! How dare you talk to me like that?! I'm your grandfather! What I've ever done wasn't for your sake?!"

“I call you Grandpa because you are my mother’s father, and because Jiang Huaiyu also called you Grandpa, but not because I want to.” Lu Mingxiao heated oil in a wok: “If you don’t want me to call you that, then I won’t.”

"Those things were originally yours!!" Jiang Qiheng breathed heavily. "You're young now, you have no idea how much you've lost for so-called brotherhood?"

"So what if you're old?" Lu Mingxiao carefully put the fish into the pot, yelling as oil splattered on him. "You have no idea that for the sake of so-called profit, you lost the world's best Jiang Xiaoyu. I, on the other hand..."

He paused for a moment, and finally held back his words, mainly because the old man was getting on in years and might not be able to handle such a shock, so he pushed the cabinet door back open.

Jiang Qiheng even pressed on, asking, "What are you?!"

Lu Mingxiao: "My loyalty is unparalleled!"

If his return would put Jiang Huaiyu in an awkward position, he would rather not see her; after all, they could meet again anytime soon.

...

Jiang Huaiyu set off in mid-July, and Song Jingliang and Jiang Lan went to see him off to school.

Li Qing and Lu Chuan also came to Shanghai to see Jiang Huaiyu off. They had dinner together the night before. Li Qing was most worried about Jiang Huaiyu's meals, but Jiang Lan explained with a smile that she had already hired a Chinese-American private chef for Jiang Huaiyu.

Li Qing's heart finally settled down, and for the first time, she sincerely exclaimed how wonderful it is to be rich.

During the casual conversation, they naturally asked about Lu Mingxiao, who was not present. When they learned that Lu Mingxiao had not gone on a trip but had been practicing his cooking skills at home every day, Song Jingliang snorted with an ambiguous expression.

That brat, I reckon by the time he's in graduate school, he'll be able to save on the cost of a private chef.

On their last night in China, Jiang Huaiyu lay in bed, chatting with Lu Mingxiao via in-game voice chat.

Lu Mingxiao sent him a picture of four dishes and a soup, which looked quite appetizing.

"Wait, I'll cook it for you later," Lu Mingxiao said.

"Um."

The next day, we set off for the airport.

Li Qing and Lu Chuan each gave a few more words of advice, while Song Jingliang pushed the luggage and tugged at the charm on Jiang Huaiyu's backpack.

"Son, this donkey is really ugly."

Jiang Huaiyu: "...Quite cute."

He then looked at Li Qing: "Mom, it's really time to go in and check in. Don't worry about me, I'll video call you when we get there."

Song Jingliang and Jiang Lan had already turned and headed towards the check-in gate. Jiang Huaiyu wasn't going on vacation this time, but rather living in a foreign country for an extended period of time. Last night, Jiang Lan wished she could stuff the bed into Jiang Huaiyu's suitcase. Fortunately, Chairman Song was disciplined and fit all the time, so lifting the two large suitcases was effortless for him.

Mr. Song was looking at his wife with the eyes of a peacock spreading its tail feathers, his face full of praise, when he was suddenly hit on the back of the head by a loud, youthful voice. His hand trembled, and he almost dropped the box.

"Jiang Huaiyu—!!"

Like a scorching summer breeze, the young man strode through the bustling crowd. The July heat in Shanghai was terrifying; his gray short-sleeved shirt was soaked with sweat, and a dark patch of sweat stained his neck.

Jiang Huaiyu stood there, stunned, until the boy ran over, reached out and hugged him tightly, his sweaty temples gently brushing against his ear.

"The plane was delayed. I just landed and haven't even left the airport yet. Luckily, I made it..." Lu Mingxiao ran over, his breath uneven, and his warm breath fell on Jiang Huaiyu's ears and neck, making Jiang Huaiyu tremble slightly.

"My God..." Li Qing was stunned: "You brat, when did you buy the plane ticket? If I had known you were going to come anyway, I would have just brought you along..."

Lu Chuan pulled Li Qing aside, asking her to spend time with the two children.

Song Jingliang: "I'm going to tear him off my son! I'm going right now!"

Jiang Lan: "Old Song, calm down. Which one do you want to tear up?"

The noise around them receded like the tide, leaving only Lu Mingxiao's rapid heartbeat. Jiang Huaiyu raised her hand and hugged Lu Mingxiao's narrow and muscular waist.

"Just to take a look?"

“Just one look is enough.” Lu Mingxiao smiled, loosening his grip on Jiang Huaiyu a little. He straightened up, looking down at his boyfriend whom he hadn’t seen in a long time, his voice slightly hoarse: “It would be even better if we could kiss, but I’m afraid…”

Jiang Huaiyu raised her hand and took off her baseball cap, blocking Song Jingliang's view. She stood on tiptoe and kissed him on the lips, then pulled away immediately.

"Brother Xiao, remember to think of me, think of me every day."

Author's Note:

Chairman Song: I'm not feeling well as the psychology committee member!

[Cat paw] Red envelope~