Chapter 17 You Ignore Me

Qi Lang took a nap at home, and estimated that he would sleep until noon.

The vegetable market is bustling with people.

Bai He held up a small black lace parasol, providing shade, and followed Yan Yi closely.

Yan Yi was wearing a black velvet mask and picking and choosing at the vegetable stall. There were many women buying vegetables around him, and their eyes were all on him.

It's so rare to see such a handsome and elegant boy shopping in the vegetable market.

Yan Yi didn't say a word to her the whole morning.

Bai He felt a little nervous and even guilty, so she took the initiative to step forward and stood on tiptoe to hold an umbrella for him to provide shade.

Yan Yi opened his umbrella and asked the vendor, "How much are the carrots per pound?"

"Cheap, 1 dollar."

He squatted down and picked a few fresh carrots. After scanning the code to pay, he stood up and went to the meat stall.

The fishy, salty and greasy smell from the meat stall hit her face. Bai He followed closely, trying to pull at the corner of Yan Yi's clothes.

"Be careful!"

A tricycle loaded with fresh pork was coming from behind. Yan Yi subconsciously turned around and took her back, avoiding the tricycle from hitting her little white skirt.

He protected her with one hand. Bai He felt the strength of his arm muscles, which were hard and powerful.

When she was a child, she would occasionally fight with Yan Yi, and she could rely on her earlier developed height and size to suppress him and win the fight, but now... Bai He was shocked to find that she had no way to fight him in terms of strength.

Her brother... has grown up completely and can subdue her with the strength of one arm.

Finally, Yan Yi said the first words of the morning: "I told you to wait for me outside the vegetable market."

"No, I want to buy groceries with you." The little girl said stubbornly, standing on tiptoe and continuing to hold an umbrella for Yan Yi.

Yan Yi said: "I am not afraid of the sun."

"Okay, then I won't use it either." She put away the small parasol, folded it and put it back into her cross-body bag, and went to buy meat with Yan Yi.

Yan Yi grabbed her wrist to prevent her from being bumped by the crowded crowd.

At the beef stall, he bought three pounds of beef tendon and bargained with the vendor to get a few dollars cheaper.

In life, Yan Yi is very thrifty. Even if his parents have given them more than enough living expenses for the next two days, he will always try to save money and never spend it recklessly.

Yan Yi is really a boy who is very suitable for living at home.

"I wonder which girl will be so lucky in the future to marry our little Yan Yi." Bai He said jokingly.

Yan Yi snorted lightly but did not answer.

After buying the meat, he went to the fruit stall and bought the cherries that Bai He liked to eat. The fruit vendor put the cherries into bags with his hands, but Yan Yi told him not to pack them like that. He squatted patiently beside the stall, carefully selecting each one and filling a bag.

Bai He followed him out of the vegetable market and wanted to take the full bag from him, but Yan Yi didn't give it to her: "No need."

He was always gentlemanly to her and never asked her to carry anything, unlike Qi Lang, who was so shameless that he even had to hang his schoolbag on Bai He and help her carry it.

Bai He walked a few steps with him and asked him cautiously: "Are you angry with me, Yi?"

"No." Yan Yi said indifferently.

"You're just angry." Bai He frowned. "When Ah Yi is angry, he loves to use cold violence and ignore people."

Yan Yi took a deep breath and looked at her: "I'm not ignoring you."

"You just ignored me," the girl complained, feeling a little aggrieved. "You're just like those boyfriends that girls in Xiaomou's books always complain about. They love using the cold shoulder, don't communicate, don't exchange ideas, and keep everything bottled up."

Yan Yi paused for a moment and said, "I... am not your boyfriend."

"Of course not, but the nature is the same!"

He lowered his head and thought carefully, then explained, "I just don't know what to say."

"Isn't it because... I just kissed Qi Lang secretly, and you saw it and were unhappy?"

Yan Yi was startled, as if some secret secret in his heart was suddenly touched upon, causing his heart to beat faster and his blood to flow faster.

"Why...am I unhappy?" Yan Yi mustered up the courage to ask her back.

"You think that I'm being unreserved by doing this, and you think I'm that kind of frivolous girl, so you don't want to pay attention to me." Bai He could only find this explanation to explain Yan Yi's indifference this morning.

Yan Yi remained silent.

He wasn't unhappy because of anything Bai He did, he just felt bad, so bad... that he didn't want to say a word.

Jealousy was like a poisonous snake, almost devouring his heart.

But such emotions had to be secretly hidden and suppressed so that she could not detect them at all.

Yan Yi stopped and looked back at her. Her delicate eyebrows were slightly frowned, as if she was particularly unconvinced.

"When I woke up and saw you sleeping in the same bed with him, what do you think I would think? What would my uncle and aunt think if they knew?"

He brought up her parents, cleverly putting himself in the family's shoes, and said this to her.

Bai He didn't have as many thoughts as him, she quickly explained: "No, Qi Lang and I have nothing. Didn't we sleep together when we were young?"

“But now I’m grown up.”

Bai He was a little unhappy and said sullenly, "If we grow up and good friends have to avoid suspicion and can't be so close, then I'd rather not grow up."

Yan Yi immediately found the logical flaw in her words and counterattacked, "If we were just ordinary good friends, that would be a different matter. But if Qi Lang knew that you liked him so much, would he still come to sleep with you?"

“…”

Indeed, no.

Qi Lang would avoid suspicion, which is why Bai He has never dared to express her love.

I'm afraid that if I tell you, I won't even be able to be friends with you.

He continued, "Who's been trying to get close to him under the guise of being a good friend, even doing things...that he probably wouldn't want to do, like getting close to him while he's asleep? Put yourself in his shoes. If it was your class monitor, Chen De, and he kissed you while you were asleep on your desk, would you be angry?"

These words were spoken with anger, but Bai He's face turned red with embarrassment.

Not only her face, her eyes were a little red too.

Shame, guilt, humiliation, anger...all kinds of complex emotions of adolescence surged into my heart.

"You...you and he are really good brothers. You really know how to stand up for him!" Bai He quickened his pace, ran towards home, and ignored him.

Yan Yi kicked the stone at his feet away, feeling upset.

It was past eleven when Bai He returned home. Qi Lang had already gotten up, taken a shower, and came out of the bathroom wearing only shorts. He met Bai He who was changing her shoes head-on.

Their eyes met, and Bai He's gaze fell on his bulging chest muscles.

Qi Lang: "Close your eyes."

The little girl immediately covered her eyes with her hands.

Qi Lang pretended to be calm as he went into Yan Yi's room. When he came out, he had changed into trousers and asked nonchalantly, "Where's Yan Yi?"

"I don't know, maybe he's dead." Bai He said unhappily.

Qi Lang smiled, picked up her little yellow duck cup, and went to the water dispenser to get some water: "It's rare, isn't this kid your beloved little brother, and now he is so rude."

"Not again! You stinky Yanyi." Bai He angrily started to throw a tantrum, "From today on, I've decided to hate him!"

Qi Lang raised his head to drink water, his Adam's apple rolling as he swallowed slightly: "What's the conflict?"

"He said I wasn't a good girl and was a hooligan."

"What did you do to him?"

"I..." Bai He's cheeks flushed, "No, nothing."

Qi Lang smiled mischievously: "Yan Yi has a good figure and looks. If I were a girl, I would also act like a hooligan to him. I do it every day, hahahaha."

“…”

"However, if you were to do anything to him, I wonder how happy he would be. How could he be angry with you?" he said.

"He won't, he doesn't know how much he hates me!" Bai He said uncomfortably, "Will you stay for lunch?"

"No." Qi Lang went to the door and put on his sneakers. "I've made an appointment with some friends to play billiards later. They'll come over for dinner tonight."

"Oh, okay, we'll wait for you tonight."

After Qi Lang left, Bai He went into the kitchen to wash rice and cook. After a while, she heard the sound of the security door opening and knew that Yan Yi had returned.

She didn't go out, nor did she call him.

When Yan Yi entered the room, he noticed that the Nike sneakers at the door were gone, and he took the initiative to ask, "Qi Lang is gone?"

In the kitchen, Bai He did not answer.

Yan Yi carried beef, green onions and carrots into the kitchen, cleaned the beef with a cleaning machine, took out the chopping board, and used a knife to cut the green onions and prepare the dishes.

"Would you like to have braised beef or beef stewed with radish?" he asked her.

"Whatever." She finally responded unhappily.

"What do you want to eat?"

"I said it's up to you, don't you understand?" Bai He was obviously a little angry.

In fact, she shouldn't have lost her temper with Yan Yi, but what he just said really hurt Bai He's self-esteem, making her feel that she was really bad, taking advantage of Qi Lang in the name of a good friend.

Bai He was angry with herself, but because Yan Yi was the person closest to her, she could only use her minions on him and use him as the target of her anger.

"Then let's make braised beef." Yan Yi said to himself as he picked up the carrots and started slicing them.

Bai He still ignored him, lowered her head and washed the beef, as if she was determined to continue the cold war with him.

Yan Yi was skillfully cutting carrots with a knife. Looking at the sharp blade, he paused for a moment, then made up his mind and cut his ring finger with a sudden move.

Then the boy groaned.

Bai He turned around and saw that his ring finger was cut deeply by the knife, and blood was flowing down the finger.

She screamed, hurriedly washed her hands, ran over and grabbed Yan Yi's hand: "How can you be so careless!"

"I was distracted."

"What are you thinking about while cutting something?" Bai He quickly found the medicine box, took out clean gauze to help him press and stop the bleeding, then held his finger tightly and wrapped it up.

After the bleeding stopped, Bai He took out iodine to disinfect the wound. Looking at the deep wound, he said distressedly, "What a deep wound!"

"Um."

"How did you cut your ring finger?"

Yan Yi thought to himself that since he still had to cook later, he had to sacrifice his ring finger.

"have no idea."

Seeing that the bleeding had stopped, Bai He bandaged his finger with a Band-Aid and sternly said to him, "Don't get it wet. I'll cook later."

"Can you?"

"Well, you can boss me around."

"The last time you made spicy chicken, you almost burned through the pot."

"It was an accident!"

Yan Yi lowered his head and saw the girl holding his hand tightly, so tightly and with such worry.

His heart finally calmed down a little.

"What were you thinking just now?" Bai He asked him, "You are a chef, how could you cut your hand?"

"I was thinking, you're ignoring me."

Bai He glanced at him unhappily, and he showed an aggrieved expression like a puppy.

"You ignored me all morning." Bai He curled her lips. "You didn't even respond when I spoke to you. How can you be so hypocritical?"

"I promised you, but you didn't hear it."

"How could you agree?"

"In my heart."

“…”

Bai He was finally amused by him. Yan Yi held her hand and said, "Bai He, let's not quarrel over irrelevant people."

"Is Qi Lang an irrelevant person?"

“For us, yes.”

Bai He lowered her eyes, thinking that she and Yan Yi... were like little rabbits raised in the same nest, and no one else was worth the conflict between them.

"Yeah." She nodded in agreement and went into the kitchen to busy herself. She didn't ask Yan Yi to cook, but let him direct her to do it.

Yan Yi looked at the busy figure of the little girl, his eyes full of longing.

In fact, those hurtful words that Yan Yi said to her were meant for himself.

He was the one who used the name of siblings to try to get close to her without principles again and again.

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