Mask
His laughter obviously angered the man in front of him.
The man was so angry that he grabbed the potted plant next to him and threw it at Lin Nanyan.
"You still have the nerve to laugh!"
The potted plants shattered under his feet as they whizzed past, brown soil spilled all over the ground, and green branches and leaves broke, shattered into pieces like his shattered dreams.
Tiny fragments splashed and swayed across his face, leaving a faint red mark.
Blood was dripping down the boy's face, but he could no longer feel the pain.
The sadness that suddenly surged in his heart overwhelmed him, and he was about to drown in this endless darkness.
"I feed you and clothe you, and I didn't raise you to this age just to let you skip classes!"
Lin Chongshan was still cursing. He kicked over the wooden cabinet next to him, and his voice sounded very suppressed amid the clattering sound.
"If you're not embarrassed, then I am. I'm talking business with someone else. Okay, your teacher called me."
"I'm fucking still on, are you taking me for a fool? Huh?"
"You know everyone's laughing at me, even your bitch mom is laughing at me!"
The man's face turned red and his eyes were bloodshot with anger, making him look terrifying.
But the boy in front of him acted as if he didn't hear anything. He kept his eyes down, said nothing, and was unmoved, turning a deaf ear to his words.
This silent and cold attitude further infuriated the man. He dragged Lin Nanyan over and said fiercely, "Well, even you ignore me. You look down on me, right?"
He raised his hand and wanted to hit someone, but when he saw the boy's calm face, who didn't even try to dodge, he calmed down.
His good son was already used to physical pain, he should have known that.
Lin Zhongshan suddenly looked strange and said, "It seems I have to go talk to your Uncle Jiang about how you have been doing these years."
Lin Nanyan turned around suddenly and looked at him coldly: "Can you?"
Lin Zhongshan smiled, as if he had finally found a way to control him. His face twitched and he gritted his teeth: "Of course I won't."
He patted Lin Nanyan's cheek and said, "But don't push me. You know, if you push me too hard, I can do anything."
There was the same fierceness in the two similar pairs of eyes.
Whoever has a weak spot will be the first to fail. Lin Nanyan cannot gamble on Lin Chongshan's conscience.
"I promise you." During the confrontation, he suddenly said, "I promise you what you said before."
"The condition is that for the next month, no matter if I skip classes or do anything out of line, you can't control me anymore."
Seeing Lin Zhongshan opening his mouth to say something, Lin Nanyan interrupted him and said, "I will always be number one."
Hearing this, the man's expression finally relaxed, and he straightened Lin Nanyan's collar.
"I won't care about you for a month, but you'd better do what you promised me. Otherwise, you don't want to know the consequences."
He turned around, walked to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. It was empty, with only a few bottles of mineral water. He picked up a bottle with disgust, unscrewed the lid and took a sip.
Looking back, he saw Lin Nanyan still standing there. He picked up a new bottle of mineral water and walked over.
"You are my son. My blood flows in your body. I understand you better than anyone else."
"You're just like me, willing to compromise and do anything for your ridiculous self-esteem and worthless face."
"But you're better than your dad. At least you have the title of number one, which makes people look at you with admiration."
He extended his hand and handed over the mineral water: "If one day, you lose this only advantage and fall from a high place, everyone, even your closest people, will laugh and step on you."
"You don't want to experience that day."
Like a loving father, he counseled, "Dad is doing this for your own good. Only if you walk impartially on the right path and step on everyone's heads, can you have the last laugh."
Looking at the mineral water handed to him right under his nose, Lin Nan stretched out his hand and slowly clenched it.
The plastic container creaked in his hand, just like his heart, which was being clenched tightly.
He looked up. "Like you did to my mom?"
That cold gaze hurt Lin Zhongshan's heart, and he instantly flew into a rage: "Don't mention that bitch of your mother! She doesn't want you anymore, and you're still thinking about her!"
Lin Nanyan tugged at the corner of his lip, causing the wound, which had just scabbed over, to bleed again, covering half his face. He was unaware of it and simply said coldly, "Oh, it seems I lost the argument again."
"You!" Lin Chongshan was hit in the sore spot, and his hand was shaking as he pointed at Lin Nanyue.
"You are my father, and she is my mother." Lin Nanyan stated the facts calmly, "Even if you get divorced one day, she will still be my mother."
He suddenly smiled gently: "After all, I have your blood flowing in my body, right?"
"You!" Lin Chongshan was so angry that his temples were throbbing. He felt that if he stayed here any longer, his life span would be shortened by many years.
He left with a sentence "You'd better do what you say" and slammed the door.
Under the dim light, the room was cold and silent.
Half of Lin Nanyan's face was in shadow, and all his popularity faded.
“Ding Ding——”
The special reminder ringtone rang, Lin Nanyan's eyelashes moved slightly, and she opened her phone.
[Jiang Maomao: You have good taste. I am so beautiful, smart, kind and cute. I have omitted ten thousand words here. Please be merciful and allow you to like me this time.]
[Ginger Maomao: Why don’t you thank the emperor for his grace?]
Tears suddenly fell on the phone screen, blurring the words.
Yes, Jiang Jiang, you are beautiful, smart, kind and cute. All the beautiful words in the world are not enough to describe your beauty.
But I can't like you anymore.
Lin Nanyan is not worthy of you.
The young man's dreams were revealed in vain, but he also died suddenly on that day.
It seems like it was destined, like it was a premonition.
He is such a sensitive person, how could he not be aware of his own feelings?
When he got closer to the answer again and again, he chose to stay away from it again and again. The moment Song Shuang exposed the truth, he subconsciously denied it at the first moment.
The words "I like you" are like crossing thousands of mountains and rivers.
How can I say I like you?
Float up and press down, press down and float up again.
Until Jiang Jiang held his face, until Jiang Jiang looked at him, forcing him to face himself.
He could no longer deceive himself or run away cowardly.
The girl's beautiful eyes seemed to only hold him, and she was looking at him.
He realized that Jiang Jiang was expecting his answer.
Great happiness came, and at that moment, he was bewitched by the beauty.
Abandon all worries and all inferiority.
He said, "All of it. I like all of you."
No matter who she was in the past or who she is now, in Lin Nanyue's eyes, Jiang Jiang has always been alone.
A person who deserves to be liked by everyone.
He is not good enough, he is not worthy.
Lin Nanyan collapsed on the ground, curled up in pain.
His heart was empty and confused, and waves of sadness surged over him, drowning him completely.
He clenched his phone and breathed heavily.
It turned out that the moment his secret love was exposed was the moment his heart died.
Jiang Jiang, I should be glad that you don’t like me, right?
Jiang Jiang, I should choose to let go, right?
Jiang Jiang, I like you, and I will always like you.
Jiang Jiang, I should be happy.
But why does my heart hurt so much?
The night outside the window was thick and the stars were hidden in the clouds.
The night is so long.
Jiang Jiang, is it true, is it true that we will never see tomorrow again?
Tears mixed with blood spread freely in unknown places.
In the long dark night, the lights are dim.
As one light after another went out and came on, the fiery red sun slowly rose, shining on the earth as always.
On the streets, fireworks are everywhere and pedestrians are hurrying. Everyone is busy with his own affairs, day after day, year after year, nothing is different.
But for Jiang Qing, this day was an extremely unusual day.
After all, Lin Dagou confessed to her yesterday, hahahahahaha.
Lin Dagou, one day he was also stepped under her feet.
Let’s see if he can be so arrogant with her in the future. In the future, she, King Jiang Jiang, will also be strong and have to be the one in charge.
Thinking of this, she was so excited that she couldn't sleep last night. She copied Lin Nanyue's apology letter all night long. Even when Ms. Wang used the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms on her, she couldn't close her mouth.
Her mother was so scared that she thought there was something wrong with her brain, and she didn't pursue the matter of her skipping classes at all. It was a pleasant surprise.
Jiang Qing got up in the morning and excitedly called Lin Nanyan to go to school together.
After shouting for a long time, the door finally opened.
She was already used to walking together, but for some reason today, she didn't dare to look up at the other person.
It was Lin Nanyan who confessed to her, so why couldn't she see it?
Just look! She just looks!
She also wanted to ask him why he didn't reply to her message yesterday!
Jiang Qing looked up with confidence, but was shocked by the expression of the person in front of her.
The boy's face was pale, with a dark bruise under his eye, making him look fragile, as if he could weather at any moment. More importantly, the side of his face was red, and he had a Band-Aid on it that was not very obvious, but she could see it at a glance, similar to his skin color.
"What's wrong with your face?" Jiang Qing quickly stood on tiptoe, holding his face and looking left and right. "Is it hurt? How did it get hurt? Why are you so careless?"
Lin Nanyan bent over and looked at the girl's face approaching in front of him, with a heavy shadow in his eyes.
"Why aren't you talking?" Jiang Qing carefully poked the boy's face, leaving a small dimple. It was soft and felt great. "Does it still hurt?"
Lin Nanyan suppressed all his emotions, straightened his back, hardened his heart, and forcibly pulled his face out of the girl's hands.
Somehow, Jiang Qing felt that the boy seemed very sad, but in the blink of an eye, it seemed like her illusion.
She felt something was wrong, but she didn't know what, so she could only ask, "What's wrong with you?"
"Jiang Jiang, can you tell me about the future?" Lin Nanyan didn't reply. He asked softly, "How have you been doing since I...I left?"
"As for me, I'm fine. I can eat, sleep, and have fun," Jiang Qing paused and continued, "Let me tell you, I later became a famous photography artist and opened my own studio. I do what I love every day, and when I have free time, I go traveling and shopping with my best friends."
"I have so many things to do every day, and yet I have so much free time. I'm incredibly happy."
"Why are you asking that?" She tilted her head and smiled widely. "Are you jealous?"
"I tell you, no matter how much you envy me, I don't know how you will live in the future. It's your fault for not contacting me." Jiang Qing complained dissatisfiedly.
Lin Nanyan lowered his eyes and looked at her: "That's good."
His voice was so soft that Jiang Qing couldn't hear what he was saying.
"What did you say?" Jiang Qing asked.
"Jiang Qing."
Lin Nanyan suddenly called out her full name, and Jiang Qing always had a bad feeling.
"What are you doing? So serious."
"I like you and I will always like you."
Hearing this, the corners of her mouth almost stretched to the sky. Jiang Qing forced herself to remain calm: "I know, you don't have to keep bringing it up. It's so embarrassing——"
"It's the kind of love you have for your sister." Lin Nanyan interrupted her.
Jiang Qing's smile froze. She was almost speechless as she spoke word by word: "What did you say? Say it again."
Her ears were buzzing, and she only heard the boy say, "I like you, but it's just the kind of love I have for my sister."
He said, "I went home yesterday and thought about it all night. My feelings for you are family affection, not love. I was wrong."
He said: "I'm very sorry for what happened yesterday. I shouldn't have said those words impulsively and caused you to misunderstand."
He said: "All the kindness I have shown you is just out of habit. I have been used to treating myself as your brother since I was a child. Please don't misunderstand me."
He said: "From now on, you are still my sister, and I will take good care of you."
He said, "As for what I said yesterday, just pretend I didn't say it. Let's forget about it."
Lin Nanyan lowered his eyes, his thin eyelids covering all his expressions. So be it, it was enough for him to stay by her side as a brother.
He couldn't expect more.
Jiang Qing’s head was about to explode.
Pooh!
What the hell are you talking about?
Not a single word was what she wanted to hear.
Facing this handsome but suddenly ugly face, she gritted her teeth and asked, "What the hell are you talking about?"
Lin Nanyan: "I said——"
"Shut up! If you don't know how to speak, don't speak. Nothing nice can come out of a dog's mouth." Jiang Qing said fiercely.
Lin Nanyan rarely argued and just kept quiet.
"That's not right," Jiang Qing was furious, but the more she thought about it, the more she felt something was wrong. "You're very abnormal today, incredibly abnormal."
Lin Nanyan was very surprised. He didn't expect Jiang Qing's focus to shift to other things.
Is it because she doesn't like him that she can be so calm?
Jiang Qing touched her chin and thought: "If you really don't like me, if you really treat me as your sister, if you really were lying yesterday."
Three true ones in a row, Jiang Qing emphasized.
"Could it be..." Jiang Qing blinked her big eyes and fired a fatal blow, "Shouldn't you be mocking me today for being so foolish as to believe your lies?"
"Shouldn't you laugh out loud and put a damper on my arrogance?"
Hearing this, Lin Nanyan felt at a loss whether to laugh or cry: "So, this is how I am in your eyes."
"That's right," Jiang Qing nodded fiercely, "You are such a vindictive, arrogant, and extremely bad little dog."
"So, there's something wrong with you." She made the final decision.
"Until yesterday, there was nothing wrong with you. Then, overnight, your attitude suddenly took a 180-degree turn. What's different?"
Jiang Qing began to seriously doubt it.
Lin Nanyan was helpless: "Can't it be that I am taking this matter very seriously, so I want to explain it to you clearly? Do you really have to think so badly of me?"
"Don't interrupt me, I'm thinking seriously." Jiang Qing raised her hand and swatted away the five fingers dangling in front of her eyes. Suddenly, she remembered something. "Is it because of your dad?"
Lin Nanyan's body suddenly stiffened: "Are you kidding?"
"I saw it," the girl turned around and said seriously, "When I passed by your house yesterday, there was light coming from the crack of your door. Is your dad back?"
She guessed: "Did your father hear our conversation yesterday? He doesn't want you to date me?"
"No." Lin Nanyan rubbed his brows and denied her guess, "He doesn't know about what happened between us."
This sentence is true, Jiang Qing can feel it.
"Why is that?"
"Don't make random guesses," Lin Nanyanqu tapped the girl's forehead, "It's not what you think. It has nothing to do with others. It's my problem. I haven't figured out how I feel about you."
"This time I'm serious, not joking."
After Lin Nanyan finished speaking, he didn't dare to look into the girl's sincere eyes again. He turned around in embarrassment.
Jiang Qing looked at Lin Nanyue's back as he strode forward, and suddenly she couldn't help it. Tears welled up in her eyes, blurring her vision.
She wiped the tears from her eyes fiercely: "Do you know what I hate the most?"
The boy paused and didn't look back.
Jiang Qing shouted at him, "I hate riddlers like you the most."
"Is there anything that can't be said face to face? You have to make me guess, guessing over and over again. Don't I have a heart? Don't I feel pain?"
"I also get irritated, want to give up, feel sad, and feel pain!"
"Did I come back to the present just to experience another departure without saying goodbye, and another round of speculation?"
"Lin Nanyan! Turn around! Look at me!"
Lin Nanyan turned around and looked at her, at the girl.
Such amazing courage burst out from that little body.
"You asked me before how I was doing after you left. I'll answer that question again."
"I'm not doing well, not at all."
"At first, I thought that maybe you were annoyed with me because I had a fight with you, so you left without saying goodbye."
Jiang Qing had tears in her eyes and her voice was choked, but she tried to suppress them and make herself speak clearly.
"Then I started to worry, wondering if something had happened to you, if you had been injured somewhere I couldn't see. I didn't even dare to think about the worst possible outcome."
"Then I tried to be strong, tried not to think about you, learned not to care, learned to forget, and finally lived a peaceful life, but then you came to me."
"Hahaha, am I being ridiculous?" Jiang Qing's smile was filled with sadness. "After so many years, I still care about your leaving without saying goodbye."
The first half of her life was closely entangled with a man named Lin Nanyan, and they were once the closest people to each other.
How can she forget? How can she let go?
She couldn't let go, even after nine years she still couldn't let go.
"Lin Nanyan, could you please stop being so willful?"
"You come as you please, you leave as you please, you hide everything from me as you please."
"I tell you, even if it's for my own good, I'm not grateful at all! Not at all!" she yelled at Lin Nanyue.
"You're a coward! A selfish coward!"
Jiang Qing's emotions suddenly burst out and she couldn't control her tears. As she cried, she fell into a warm embrace.
Lin Nanyue's eyes were red. He hugged her and buried her head in his chest. The girl's tears wet a small part of his chest. It was cold but burned all the way to his heart.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's my fault."
"Lin Nanyan is a selfish person. I'm sorry."
"Not this time," he stroked the girl's hair, a barely perceptible hint of moisture in his voice. "If the day ever comes when I have to leave, I will definitely say goodbye to you properly."
Jiang Qing raised her head from his arms, her nose red and twitching, looking pitiful and cute: "Really?"
"Really, I promise."
"Then," Jiang Qing didn't forget to confirm the answer she was thinking about, "Do you like me?"
"The kind of love a girlfriend has." She quickly added.
There was a clear spring in the girl's beautiful eyes. No one could bear to refuse her when being looked at by such eyes.
Lin Nanyan reluctantly compromised: "I like you, the kind of love a girlfriend has."
Hearing this, the tears in Jiang Qing's eyes quickly disappeared, and in the blink of an eye, she became proud again. She said proudly: "I knew it. Since you said it out loud, how could you be wrong?"
"I'm so smart and cute, if you don't like me, you're blind."
A smile appeared in Lin Nanyan's eyes: "Well, I have a good eye."
"Don't be so roundabout in praising yourself," Jiang Qing emerged from Lin Nanyan's arms. "Then why did you change your words before?"
Lin Nanyan was silent.
"Go ahead," Jiang Qing tugged at his sleeve, shaking him. "Don't try to fool me with other excuses. I can tell."
Lin Nanyan: "Because we are still high school students, we can't fall in love, and——"
He looked at Jiang Qing: "You traveled back to the present, and you can travel back. The situation is not very stable. I'm not sure if it's a good time to talk about love."
"...You're right, but—" Jiang Qing turned and warned him, "Don't hide anything from me next time."
"As you command, Ms. Jiang Jiang."
Jiang Qing: "As long as we work hard to find clues, we will eventually figure it out."
"Well, I believe it." Lin Nanyan looked at the girl and suddenly asked, "Jiang Jiang, do you like me?"
"Ah? Me?" Jiang Qing was caught off guard and confused. She stammered and finally came clean.
"Honestly, I don't know either, because things between us are a bit too complicated," she looked up, "I just accepted the rest of my life without you, but then you suddenly appeared to disturb me, and now I meet your younger self again."
"I'm confused. In short, my feelings for you are so complicated that I can't even figure it out myself."
Her eyes were bright after being washed by water. "But there is one thing I am sure of. When you said you liked me, I was very happy."
"Lin Nanyan, thank you for your love."
Lin Nanyan buried his head in Jiang Qing's shoulder, blocking all his expressions.
Look, how can he not like a girl like this and how can he let go of her.
"I should thank you," he said.
How could he have the heart to drag a girl like this into trouble? How could he be so selfish as to disregard her happiness?
How could he bear not to let go of a girl like this?
"Lin Nanyan, stop acting like a spoiled child." Jiang Qing moved his head away with a finger.
"Yeah." His voice was hoarse.
Jiang Jiang, everything happened so suddenly that you saw through my clumsy performance and heard that my words were insincere.
Just as you know me, I know everything about you.
From now on, can you still see through my mask?
I can’t do that anymore.
Otherwise, you wouldn't believe my lies.
He hugged the person in front of him tightly, and out of the corner of his eye he saw a familiar person standing at the end of the road.
Lin Nanyan suddenly turned his head.
It’s him nine years later!
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