Chapter 127 N - Letter of Gratitude
Two weeks later, Chu Beiling received the photos from Ke Jincheng. He framed the photos and hung them in the most conspicuous place in the living room, making sure that everyone who came in would see them at a glance.
Xing Yu asked curiously, "You've taken the most prominent spot, where will we hang our photos then?"
Chu Beiling rested her chin on her hand and thought for a moment. She took down most of the photo, but then felt awkward looking at the empty wall. So she hung the photo back up: "I'll hang it up for now and change it later."
Xing Yu leaned closer to settle old scores with him: "President Chu, I've fulfilled your wish. When are you going to repay what you owe me?"
Chu Beiling blinked, puzzled: "What do I owe you?"
Xing Yu kindly reminded him: "Coffee..."
"Ouch~ I feel dizzy." Chu Beiling covered her head and fell to the side, but Xing Yu caught her steadily.
He asked, "Shall I buy it for you?"
"No," Chu Beiling said, no longer feeling dizzy, and immediately stood up to refuse, "I can do it myself."
If he were to let Xing Yu, that black sesame dumpling, come and buy it, wouldn't he have a face to live with?!
Xing Yu chuckled: "Okay."
"..."
Two months have passed since then, but Xing Yu still hasn't forgotten about it. He tried to run away, but Chu Beiling knew he couldn't escape. The words came from Xing Yu's mouth, and now it's been confirmed again.
Who told him to talk his way out of things and act recklessly, putting on a show where he knew he was asking for trouble and wouldn't die if he didn't do something stupid?
Being chased by debt collectors—
If he doesn't do it, it will seem like he's really afraid.
It's just women's clothing, go ahead and wear it~ It's not like you haven't worn it before.
In the end, Chu Beiling reluctantly placed an order for clothes online with a blank expression.
Looking at himself in the mirror, Chu Beiling's lips twitched. He hadn't expected these pieces of fabric to be so—
It's a long story.
After dawdling for almost half an hour, he finally managed to get out of the bedroom.
In the living room, Xing Yu sat leisurely on the sofa. Hearing the sound, he looked up and a smile flashed across his eyes, which he then lowered his gaze to hide it.
The classic black and white maid outfit looked unexpectedly sexy and charming on him. The skirt was shorter than he had imagined, only covering his upper thighs and revealing his long, fair legs.
Chu Beiling unconsciously tugged at the hem of his skirt with one hand, trying to pull it down, while his other hand awkwardly didn't know where to put it. The bunny girl headband on his head further highlighted his unwilling yet helpless expression.
His awkwardness and hesitation only made him more alluring.
Xing Yu shifted to a more relaxed posture, resting his elbow on the armrest, his fingertips touching his chin, and looked him up and down.
"Don't laugh." Chu Beiling's ears turned red as she warned him harshly.
Xing Yu nodded readily, but the corners of his mouth involuntarily turned up slightly.
He stood up and walked to Chu Beiling, who was stiff all over. His gaze slowly moved down from Chu Beiling's slightly flushed face, across the collar of the apron with lace trim, and then down to Chu Beiling's two straight, long legs that were tense with embarrassment and awkwardness.
"It suits you very well." Xing Yu's voice was a few decibels lower than usual, with a clear hint of sarcasm in his assessment.
Chu Beiling was so angry she wanted to kick him: "Suitable my foot! Xing Yu, you just wait..."
Before he could finish speaking, Xing Yu suddenly reached out and straightened his crooked headband, his fingertips brushing against the stray hairs on his forehead, bringing a slightly itchy sensation.
Chu Beiling was momentarily speechless, the threatening words that followed were chasing after her, completely out of her mind.
Standing very close, Xing Yu could clearly see his slight trembling, his eyelashes fluttering like cicada wings, and the fine downy hairs on his face.
Xing Yu chuckled softly, his breath brushing against his ear: "Hmm, I'll be waiting."
“But before that…” Xing Yu paused for a moment, then continued, “President Chu, shouldn’t you make me a cup of coffee first? Isn’t that the core service you provide for me?”
"..." Chu Beiling just wanted to throw this hypocritical guy in front of her, along with this damned skirt, into the trash can.
Seeing his frustrated and irritable state, yet unable to lash out because of his promise, Xing Yu chuckled softly, reached out and pulled him into his arms, patting his back reassuringly, "Alright, I won't tease you anymore."
Chu Beiling was just about to praise him for having a conscience.
Xing Yu whispered in his ear, his voice filled with the pleasure of triumph: "You look really good in a dress."
Chu Beiling stomped on his foot hard: "Get lost."
After saying that, he turned to leave, but Xing Yu pulled him back.
Xing Yu patted his fluffy head: "Alright, alright, don't be angry, go change your clothes."
Chu Beiling slapped his hand away, "Are you petting a dog?"
He was met with Xing Yu's ambiguous smile.
Chu Beiling: "..." Fine, he's shot himself in the foot again.
Xing Yu said to go change his clothes. Well, he did change his clothes, but it was a certain hypocritical guy who changed them himself.
After he was made into a salted fish pancake, and everything was over.
A few days later, it was time to register for the new year's college entrance examination. For Chu Beiling now, what the exam was about was no longer important; he just wanted to fulfill a wish.
On the day of registration, Xing Yu, who had promised to pick him up, changed his mind at the last minute and decided to register with him as well.
Chu Beiling looked up and asked, "Are you serious?"
Xing Yu: "It wasn't that you wanted to come out of the exam room hand in hand with me."
Chu Beiling: "What if we're not assigned to the same test center?"
Xing Yu said calmly, "Don't worry, your wish will come true."
Chu Beiling didn't know where he got his confidence, but since Xing Yu said that, he chose to believe him.
He believed anything that was Xing Yu.
I believe they will be together, and I believe there will be no more regrets between them.
Although they are no longer students, both of them are busy with various projects, one working harder than the other. But once they have decided to do something, they will definitely do it seriously.
After completing the project, Chu Beiling picked up her brand-new high school textbooks.
Then, I realized that I had forgotten all the knowledge I had learned from the teacher.
Chu Beiling glanced at Xing Yu, who was doing an exam paper, and asked curiously, "Do you think if I go to Xigao to ask Ma Qiu for a refund of my tuition, he will give it to me?"
Xing Yu said, "It should be... no."
Chu Beiling buried her face in her textbook: "I'd rather stay at the company and work overtime, looking at project proposals, than look at these monsoon and ocean currents."
"Then you're not going?"
"That won't do. Chu Fanfan won't back down or admit defeat."
Xing Yu tapped his test paper: "Then what are you standing there for? Start writing."
By winter, on Xing Yu's birthday, the animated series "Sword Song Beyond the Clouds" was officially completed, internal screenings ended, and it was bought by two online streaming platforms, which announced that it would be released next spring.
Before heading to the wrap party, Chu Beiling and Xing Yu made a special trip to Faxi Temple to fulfill their vows and hang up prayer strips together.
This summer was exceptionally long, lasting from May to October, and there was hardly any rain all the way into winter. On the weekend, the temple was packed with people, and even the wooden corridor leading to the mountaintop was filled with worshippers.
Amidst the sea of people, the two held hands and climbed to the top.
Xing Yu asked Chu Beiling to stand in the yellow walls and green tiles to be his model.
After finishing the drawing, he leaned over to take a look and nodded in satisfaction.
It's a bit of a pity, but all regrets can be made up for. The only thing I can't do is paint another one for Xing Yu.
Xing Yu caught a fleeting hint of melancholy in his eyes: "I already have 241 sketches." So it's okay for me.
Chu Beiling reminded him, "242, you tore up your favorite 'Northern Mountain Melting Gold' painting."
Xing Yu smiled: "You still remember this?"
"Of course," Chu Beiling said. "I hold grudges, and these grudges are irreconcilable."
Xing Yu: "That painting is still there."
Chu Beiling's eyes lit up: "Really?"
"Okay, I'll go back and find it for you."
Chu Beiling snorted twice: "That painting has such a good atmosphere, and it's about you. It's reasonable that you couldn't bear to throw it away and kept it."
Xing Yu glanced at him indifferently, smiling without saying a word.
The two stayed on the mountaintop for a long time before slowly walking down the corridor.
Upon hearing the blessing bell, Chu Beiling suddenly burst out laughing, and Xing Yu followed suit, raising an eyebrow at him as if to say, "What are you laughing at?"
Chu Beiling smiled and said, "It's nothing, I just feel like we have a special connection with this place."
He suddenly remembered that back then, because he was annoyed by Xing Yu, he made a wish at Lingyin Temple. Coincidentally, Xing Yu broke his arm, and he thought it was his fault. He took the blame and tried to get close to Xing Yu to atone for his excessive behavior.
It was around that time that they gradually began to grow closer.
In the summer of the new year, Chu Beiling and Xing Yu, like all the other teenagers, stepped into the place that witnessed their youth.
Eleven years ago, Chu Beiling had fantasized that if he was lucky enough to be assigned to the same test center as Xing Yu, he would definitely hold hands with Xing Yu as they walked out of the test room after the exam. Even though he was so late, at the age of twenty-nine.
In the end, I still stepped into the same examination center as Xing Yu.
It seems that nothing has changed; they are still the same people they were back then.
The only difference is that my mood is completely different; I've become more relaxed and more at ease.
They were lucky; not only were they assigned to the same test center, but the test center was also located at Xigao High School.
The two students were in exam rooms only two classrooms apart, both in the art building, very close to each other.
Before they entered their respective examination rooms, Xing Yu asked, "How did it feel?"
"I feel younger," Chu Beiling thought for a moment, then added, "Also, it's a bit of a pity that we can no longer see Zhejiang and Jiangsu battling hand in hand."
Xing Yu: "I don't regret it at all."
Chu Beiling raised an eyebrow: "Hmm?"
Xing Yu said quietly, "I don't want to be tortured like a dog."
The two of them burst out laughing at the same time.
Because they were at school, Xing Yu didn't act too recklessly. She simply took his hand and kissed the back of it, saying, "Good luck, may all your wishes come true."
"You too." Chu Beiling kissed her fingertip and pressed it to his lips.
Sitting in my old high school classroom, it felt like time had come crashing down on me, both familiar and strange.
Chu Beiling touched the corner of the desk and recognized it as Xing Yu's desk from back then. She smiled with relief and nostalgia.
One of the proctors for the first course was Deng Laodao.
After the exam bell rang, he handed out the exam papers to the students in front of their seats. When he saw it was him, he was taken aback.
Then, Deng patted him on the shoulder and solemnly instructed him: "Since you're here, you still have to do well on the exam."
Chu Beiling's nose tingled, and she nodded: "Yes."
The four-day exam ended, unlike the group of boys and girls who were released from their cages and ran wild with joy.
Xing Yu and Chu Beiling were much calmer. They walked hand in hand at the back of the crowd, watching the jubilant teenagers.
Chu Beiling glanced at him and asked, "Running away, Xing?"
Xing Yu smiled, took his hand, and ran with the crowd toward the school gate.
The summer breeze brushed past their ears, running along the familiar Osmanthus Avenue of Xigao High School. The dappled shadows of the trees flashed past their shoulders and faces, flickering like a film rewinding rapidly.
As Chu Beiling passed the basketball court, his gaze inadvertently swept over the brand-new horizontal bar area inside the crochet net.
Xing Yu noticed this and slowed down his pace to match Chu Beiling's, eventually stopping.
Beside the horizontal bar, two boys in school uniforms were huddled together. One of them was grimacing as he rolled up his trouser legs, revealing a fresh abrasion on his knee, with blood mixed with sand.
His companion knelt on one knee, pulled a tissue from his pocket, and clumsily and carefully wiped his face, muttering, "You were having a blast right after the exam, look what happened..."
The injured boy said, "I was just bored while waiting for you, so I started playing around the horizontal bar."
The boy applying the medicine lightly patted his calf: "You got injured after handing in your paper early, and you still have the nerve to complain?!"
The injured boy lowered his eyes and said, "Ignore."
The sunlight shone down on the two boys without reservation.
The scene before my eyes seemed to overlap with a certain afternoon twelve years ago.
It was under this scorching sun that Chu Beiling fell while playing basketball. Xing Yu knelt down in front of him and, with a frown, cleaned his wounds with cotton swabs and iodine obtained from the school clinic.
Chu Beiling still clearly remembers every detail of that day. The golden sunlight fell on Xing Yu, casting a gentle shadow between his legs.
At that moment, all the surrounding noise seemed to have vanished, leaving only him and Xing Yu in their private, enclosed space.
He could hear nothing but his own heartbeat.
He felt a warm, firm grip on his hand; Xing Yu had gently squeezed it.
Chu Beiling snapped out of her daze and turned to look at the person beside her.
Xing Yu didn't speak, but looked at him with those eyes that he had seen countless times and which were now more and more composed, a faint smile curving his lips.
Clearly, Xing Yu and he were thinking the same thing.
The two stopped running and slowly walked along the Osmanthus Avenue towards the school gate.
“I used to fall down just like him,” Chu Beiling quickly defended herself, “but not anymore.”
“Yes, your eyes are on the top of your head, you don’t look where you’re going.” Xing Yu gently rubbed the back of his hand with his thumb and laughed, “Even if you fall now, it doesn’t matter, I’ll be right beside you.”
Chu Beiling's heart ached and softened at the same time.
He nodded: "Yes, with you by my side."
Time flies, and they are no longer young, but they are in their prime, still passionate and flamboyant, unrestrained and open-minded.
The cicadas' song was long and drawn out, as evidenced by the sunlight.
The trials and tribulations they weathered have all been captured in photographs and preserved in a picture album, and from then on—
Every blank page of the future, on a certain day, month, and year, through the changing seasons and the passing of days, will always be signed "Sunny Day".
-The End-
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