Chapter 11 Fan Jiang Hui: "We'll meet again, actually I..."
On Tuesday, Cheng Sijie's lab had a group meeting. After the meeting, she and Xin Shuang went to eat the must-have dish in every university, the Five Grains Fish Noodles, which tasted so good that they would never taste it again after leaving school. The hot soup, the smooth rice noodles, and the fresh fish slices...
Then the two of them went to a newly opened milk tea shop and ordered two drinks to try, so you could say they didn't skimp on their stomachs at all.
Perhaps because they had eaten too much, the two decided to take a walk on the playground.
The rubber track gleamed softly in the setting sun, and groups of students jogged or chatted. As they walked, the conversation inevitably turned to the dormitories.
Xin Shuang kicked at the pebbles under her feet and sighed, "It's certainly quieter now that you've moved out... Liang Momo, she... sigh, I really don't know what to say about her."
Cheng Sijie kept her eyes down and didn't say a word. Dormitory relationships have always been delicate. She had been living outside before, but as soon as she moved back to the dormitory, she severely punished Liang Momo. Xin Shuang and An Muyun seemed to have tacitly accepted her as the embodiment of justice, a character who should bravely take action.
But, a steamed bun can't always rely on others for salvation, can it?
Cheng Sijie didn't want to get involved in a bunch of troublesome things, and ended up becoming the "troublemaker." She had her own close childhood friend, but her relationships with her roommates were just casual acquaintances.
The two chatted idly as they walked around the track again and again until the moon was high in the sky before returning to their dormitory. The excessive carbohydrates and sugar, combined with the light exercise, left Cheng Sijie with no appetite for anything else; she took a shower and went to bed.
Perhaps it was the rare long period of exercise that made Cheng Sijie, who rarely dreams, dream back to his high school days tonight.
During high school, Cheng Sijie would take a bus to visit her maternal grandmother every Sunday.
Grandma lives on the outskirts of the city, just a short bus ride away. Cheng Sijie's parents are a great team, both teaching at top-tier high schools and teaching graduating classes. On Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays when intensive training is needed, they send Cheng Sijie to Grandma's house.
She wasn't close to her grandmother, who was notoriously patriarchal and once famously declared outside the delivery room, "If this is a boy, I'll help take care of him!"
Cheng Sijie's mother held a grudge. After hearing about it, she rolled her eyes and told her to leave, which exacerbated the conflict between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. Even after growing up, Cheng Sijie never received a kind look from her grandmother.
Later, she learned that her grandmother thought He Hongmei had a doctoral degree and that this daughter-in-law was too difficult to control, so she deliberately wanted to curb her daughter-in-law's arrogance.
In modern terms, her grandmother was the kind of old-fashioned feudal woman with a low sense of "worthiness." Her first reaction to a good daughter-in-law was to suppress her and devalue her so that she could keep her for a long time.
Well, her grandmother hadn't done anything outrageous except for that. On the contrary, she was usually terrified of He Hongmei. In general, she was very authoritative in matters such as whether her grandson or granddaughter was better or how to take care of children. But in other matters, such as which hospital she went to for treatment, she would obey He Hongmei without question.
He Hongmei did come to take care of Cheng Sijie's mother during her postpartum period. She was stubborn but soft-hearted and too lazy to argue with an old lady. Later, when Cheng Sijie was able to go to daycare, she was taken care of by her maternal grandmother. Because her maternal grandmother had a successful daughter, she valued girls very much.
She had a deep affection for her maternal grandmother.
She was feeling a bit carsick that day, and slowly swayed to the entrance of the residential area. A group of elderly men and women, fanning themselves with palm-leaf fans, immediately surrounded her: "Oh, Sijie's here! Your grandma went to the market, wait a bit!"
"Sijie has grown into such a handsome young man! Tsk tsk, he's even prettier than Hongmei was when she was little. He's just picked the best features!"
"How are your studies? What rank did you get this time? Your grandma said you got first place again?"
Cheng Sijie smiled awkwardly, scratching the ground with her toes as she waited for her grandmother.
This is a resettlement community after the demolition. The neighbors are all old acquaintances, and they always ask her about her in a warm manner when they see her.
But she always felt particularly socially awkward around these elders—they were so inquisitive, asking about everything from her parents' jobs to her exam scores, and if she didn't answer well, she would easily become the subject of their gossip. So she always pretended to be a shy and introverted girl who wasn't good at speaking.
Fortunately, Grandma returned quickly, carrying a bag of medicine and some daily necessities. She wasn't used to mobile payments or online shopping, and only listened to her daughter's advice—"Things from big supermarkets are guaranteed"—so she insisted on buying only the expensive, good stuff, refusing to be greedy for cheap deals or accepting the eggs offered as freebies by insurance salespeople. She usually watched TV dramas, danced, and went to the market; among her peers, she was quite a fashionable little old lady.
"Sije, you're here."
Facing this always smiling old lady, Cheng Sijie was quite considerate and said, "Grandma, let me help you carry it."
Grandma said, "Sijie, Grandma has done a fortune telling for you!"
Cheng Sijie: "..."
She said, "Grandma, you're indulging in all this feudal superstition again."
Grandma mysteriously pulled a fortune slip from her small leather bag. "The old man said that the year you take the college entrance exam, the God of Literature will shine upon you, and you're guaranteed to get into a good university. Look, there will even be peach blossoms that year."
The old lady smiled and said, "I told him that whether or not the peach blossoms are blooming is not important. My eldest granddaughter has been a top student since she was a child. It's impossible for her to go out and date someone after she finishes school."
Cheng Sijie munched on a rice ball and said, "Of course. If I start dating right after the college entrance exam, my mom will break my legs."
Her gossipy nature was piqued, and she pestered her grandmother to ask her many more questions. She was overjoyed, thinking that if she could get into a good university and find a handsome guy, she would be laughing in her sleep!
On her way home, she waited for the bus. It wasn't exactly remote, but it was still better than the city center. The traffic wasn't as heavy, and there weren't as many people. Cheng Sijie felt inexplicably sentimental because the beautiful cotton candy-like clouds and the azure sky looked just like a scene from an anime.
Including herself, who just returned to school after a year of sick leave, it remains to be seen whether she can stand in the top position like she did when she first entered junior high and high school.
But this isn't a shonen manga, after all. Sigh, it's still embarrassing and disappointing. Anyway, I gained a lot of fans this year, which was a rare experience. Life isn't a completely copied and pasted grid where everyone is exactly the same; someone always has to go a little crooked and out of line, right?
Lost in thought, she noticed the bus stop was just ahead. Carrying a woven bag and wearing a sun hat, she slowly walked towards the bus stop.
Huh! Cheng Sijie was startled.
She ran into that boy again, that mixed-race guy who almost made her think she was dreaming, a handsome, crazy man.
This time he wasn't carrying his guitar and seemed a bit detached. When he saw her, he smiled and said, "We meet again."
Cheng Sijie was startled. "What are you doing here? Do you believe I'll call the police?"
The boy said helplessly, "You and I are both minors, I wouldn't go so far as to kidnap you, would I?"
Cheng Sijie looked the boy up and down. If she were twenty-five, she could tell that the boy's clothes were expensive. If she were thirty-five, she would also know that a boy with such an air about him must come from a wealthy family. But she was only a high school freshman. She rolled her eyes and simply said, "Minors can also assist adults in trafficking."
However… Cheng Sijie looked Jiang Hui up and down and thought that he was indeed quite handsome. No way, God, could this be the Peach Blossom that my grandma was talking about?
Her voice was clear and crisp. Jiang Hui laughed, "Let me treat you to dinner. You must have gone to your grandma's house."
Cheng Sijie said, "How did you know?"
Jiang Hui said, "Are you familiar with consanguineous marriage?"
Cheng Sijie nodded.
Jiang Hui said, "There was a family history of consanguineous marriage in my family, which caused me to have some mental problems, but it also gave me some special abilities."
He lowered his voice, urging Cheng Sijie to come closer. The boy's voice was pleasant, without the hoarseness of adolescence. "I can predict the future, and I can tell what someone has done just by looking into their eyes."
Cheng Sijie was startled. "Really? You're not kidding me, are you involved in a pyramid scheme?"
She always complained that her childhood friend Lingling was too loud and lacked manners, but hearing about this suddenly made her very curious. Jiang Hui smiled and said, "We'll meet again. By the way, I'm actually a fan of yours."
Cheng Sijie suddenly realized that she often talked about her own things in the live broadcast room. She hadn't spent all her time studying during the year of the live broadcast, so it wasn't a so-called special ability for this person to know some of her information.
She relaxed and said, "Just tell me. But... you're too crazy. Fans should keep social distance from the streamer. You didn't even tell me where you came from. I almost thought you were mentally ill."
The bus arrived, and the boy boarded it with her, helping her pay the fare. "I haven't had a chance to say it yet, but you thought I was crazy."
He smiled, seemingly joking, yet with a hint of seriousness: "If I were a kidnapper, or a lunatic, wouldn't the appearance requirements for these professions be far too high these days? What do you think?"
Cheng Sijie was speechless: "You are indeed quite handsome."
Seeing that she was still very nervous, the boy helplessly showed her his phone, "Here, take a look."
Cheng Sijie leaned closer and stared intently at his phone. She saw his app, the Firefly Live user backend, and clearly, the other person had her loyal fan badge displayed, and…
She exclaimed, "You're H!"
Cheng Sijie's eyes lit up instantly. "Oh my god, what a coincidence! You're actually H!"
h was her first fan. Although he didn't talk much, he was someone she trusted and felt warm about deep down.
H smiled and said, "My name is Jiang Hui."
Cheng Sijie was driven home by him and received a cup of milk tea in return. She watched as Jiang Hui said goodbye to her, and she had a feeling that this boy was very strange. Although he always had a cold expression, he would smile when he saw her.
At that time, she never imagined that she would be entangled with Jiang Hui for so many years. In fact, to be honest, the two of them knew each other very early on, but fell in love very late, and they didn't confirm their relationship until she was a sophomore in college.
The two were very sweet together after they started dating, but, to be honest, there were always all sorts of conflicts.
At first, Cheng Sijie thought it would be due to practical reasons, such as family opposition or falling in love with someone else.
However, Jiang Hui did indeed half-truthfully confess some of his situation back then. He was indeed mentally ill and had some unknown hobbies. The first time the two broke up was because of his personality, which can be described as a spy war.
Thinking of this, Cheng Sijie couldn't help but rub her forehead, her head aching. She rubbed her eyes, still sleepy from just waking up, trying to shake off the continuous, dramatic dreams and memories of the night before. She thought:
Garlic Bird, Garlic Bird, Cheng Sijie.
For the sake of my reputation, I'll just have to put up with it.
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