Chapter 20
Zhou Yue became more and more beautiful. During that time, Dai Yan would tease her whenever she had nothing to do, and she was not afraid of spending money. At first, she asked her to learn painting, but painting is a slow process and it is impossible to impress everyone with your skills on the spot. Then she suddenly had an idea and asked her to learn dancing, but Zhou Yue was too old and it was definitely too late for her to learn classical dance. So she decided to learn Latin dance instead. She stuffed her into the dance studio and asked the teacher to stretch her legs. Zhou Yue grimaced in pain and burst into tears when she heard the word "ligament".
Every Saturday, Kang Xingxing would go to the Children's Palace to pick up Zhou Yue. Standing at the back door of the dance studio, he'd see Zhou Yue asking the teacher to pull her into a straight line. Her skin was as red as a cooked shrimp, her face grim and covered in tears, her chest and back soaked. Even so, the teacher would sit on her back, pressing her to the ground. Even through the glass, he could hear her shouting, "Down! Down! Push harder!"
Kang Xingxing turned her face away, walked around in circles in the corridor, and leaned against the door to look. But she couldn't bear it after one look, so she took a step back and leaned against the cold tile wall. She looked up at the blank ceiling, and then watched helplessly as the girls who had just finished class ran by with laughter. Some of them were wearing dance costumes and some were not. They held high-heeled dance shoes in their hands, like torture instruments, with silver sequins flickering in the sunlight, as sharp as a knife tip.
Seeing this, he was fidgeting again, like a whimpering big black dog. He was still holding Zhou Yue's water bottle in his arms, and the shoulder straps were soaked with cold sweat from his palms.
He made her some Lego, which was high in calories and a whole pot was like drinking nothing. She got scolded by the teacher for weighing herself and took her anger out on him when she got home, but he just wanted her to drink something sweet because she was too bitter.
"Learning dance will give you a good posture, a good figure, and make you beautiful." When Zhou Yue came out, Kang Xingxing pounced on her and hung all her clothes, shoes, and bag on herself. She gritted her teeth and trembled her legs as she leaned in Kang Xingxing's arms, holding his waist with one hand and the wall with the other, moving forward little by little. Even then, she did not forget to repeat to Kang Xingxing what Dai Yan had said to her.
Kang Xingxing lowered her head after hearing this, and supported her as they walked along the sunlit corridor. After a long while, she finally spoke, "Why do you have to be beautiful?"
Zhou Yue was also stunned by his question. She stopped and looked at the two figures overlapping on the wall. It was just like every night. Except for that layer of something, they had already been together. What was the point of her being beautiful? Who was she showing it to?
But for girls, being pretty doesn't seem to be wrong.
So she withdrew her gaze, looked ahead and then behind. Her class was the last in the afternoon, and the next class at the Children's Palace would be in the evening. Now that no one was around, she stood on tiptoe and kissed him on the cheek, rubbing her nose against his earlobe. "Let me show you."
"But Yueyue looks good no matter what. She looks good even when she's fat. I want Yueyue to be a little fatter."
Kang Xingxing was preoccupied, and Zhou Yue felt sweet in her heart after hearing what he said. She looked up at his black face gilded with gold, and then thought of his "collection of books" that she had found at home. At first, she blushed and pretended to call him a bad guy, but at night, she hid in the quilt with him and studied it thoroughly, more seriously than studying math problems. After studying, they had to practice. The next morning, neither of them could get up, and they dared not to do so again.
She thought of the knowledge points in the book, and whispered in his ear coquettishly, "You will know the difference in the future." Her words made his ears and heart itch, and he scratched his face and smiled foolishly.
Dai Yan didn't care about Zhou Yue's studies. She herself was uneducated and had relied on men for her food and drink in the first half of her life. So in her opinion, studying was useless, at least not as useful as Zhou Yue's pretty face.
She didn't care how well she danced. She didn't have the perseverance to do so. In her opinion, knowing a few tricks was enough. Zhou Yue just had to stand there and do nothing. Dancing and singing were just to add some fun. After all, rich people saw more beautiful women, and having talents made them more competitive.
But these thoughts were like the cigarette in her mouth, floating for a while, and then dissipated when her card friends interrupted her.
Zhou Yue doesn't like dancing, and since Dai Yan doesn't care about her, she doesn't practice much. She only dances for a while when she's under a lot of pressure from studying to change her mind.
She loves studying. One reason is that she wants to find a good job, make more money, and live a better life with Kang Xingxing. The other reason is that she always feels that the peaceful days in school for a few years are inseparable from her good academic performance. No gangster in the school dares to harass her, not even the leader. Once, a gangster whistled at her at the school gate, and the dean's blackboard hit him hard on the butt with a whistling stick. With this more powerful force, Kang Xingxing no longer has to fight with others for her. She just wants him to be fine, that's enough.
She was right, because except for those few years, her life was full of ups and downs.
So when she reached the third year of junior high school, although her math was still average and not as good as Kang Xingxing's, her overall grades were always among the top ten in the school.
Kang Xingxing took care of everything from applying for admission to taking the high school entrance exam. His grades were always among the first or second in the school, and he could have gone to the best local high school, but for Zhou Yue, he settled for the second best high school and applied to be with Zhou Yue.
Throughout the second half of the third year of junior high school, Kang Xingxing and Zhou Yue hardly touched pillows together. They sat side by side at the desk. If one of them was distracted by Zhou Gong, the other awake person would be responsible for pulling him back. Whenever Kang Xingxing dozed off, his head would hit the table with a thud, and Zhou Yue would pinch his legs and arms to wake him up.
But he couldn't bear to pinch Zhou Yue, so every time she fell asleep on the table, he would cover her with a piece of clothing. In the middle of the night, she would wake up and complain to him loudly, and he would listen with a silly smile, and he would do the same thing again next time.
It was extremely hot on the day of the high school entrance examination. Kang Xingxing woke Zhou Yue up early in the morning. While she was still in a daze on the bed, he went out to buy breakfast. It was still dark and the gray sky was covered with white mist. The breakfast was still hot when he got it. He specially bought light porridge and white steamed buns, because eating a mixture of sugar and oil would make her sleepy, and when she entered the examination room, she would not be able to do math clearly.
When I came back, Zhou Yue was still sitting on the bed, her hair messy like a straw stack and her eyes staring straight ahead.
Kang Xingxing got her out of bed, washed up, and sat her down at the table to eat breakfast. While she was eating, he checked again to see if he had brought his admission ticket and stationery.
Zhou Yue didn't wake up until she went out. Dai Yan was still sleeping in the house. She didn't come back until dawn.
They set out too early and took the first bus. There was no one on the bus. Kang Xingxing held Zhou Yue's hand all the way. The morning sun shone through the leaves onto their clasped hands. He told her not to be nervous, that it didn't matter whether she did well in the exam or not, as long as he was there, she had nothing to be afraid of.
"But what I'm afraid of is that you're not here." Zhou Yue stared out the car window in a daze. She had a bad sleeping posture and had two whorls on the top of her head. When she woke up, her hair stood up high as if it had been struck by lightning. Kang Xingxing used a blue star clip to help her clip it up.
"Don't be afraid, I'm always here." Kang Xingxing glanced at the driver secretly. He was an honest boy. He acted sneakily when doing something wrong, as if he was afraid that people would not notice him. Fortunately, the driver was watching the road and had no time to care about the affectionate couple behind him.
"Look." He unzipped his schoolbag and took out a small box from the innermost pocket. It was a small blue jewelry box, which looked quite real. When he opened it, there was a ring inside.
Zhou Yue's eyes lit up as soon as she saw him, and all her sleepiness disappeared. She leaned on his shoulder, grinning from ear to ear in surprise.
It was actually a silver-plated crescent ring with a crescent moon surrounded by stars. The stars were crudely carved, with neither five-pointed nor four-pointed stars. But at first glance it was quite beautiful, mainly because of the complicated pattern and the many cut facets that refracted colorful light. The car drove through a forest, and the ring sparkled in the sunlight.
"Keep this for now. I'll put it on you after the exam." Kang Xingxing snapped the lid shut. This whetted Zhou Yue's appetite. She was no longer sleepy. Her mind was full of the ring, and she was in high spirits during the exam.
They did well in the exam, mainly because Zhou Yue performed well in mathematics, so they were not afraid of English later. On the night after the exam, Kang Xingxing took Zhou Yue to a restaurant. It was called a restaurant, but it was just an ordinary restaurant, but in their opinion, a restaurant that sold alcohol was very high-end. The menu was hard-shelled and inlaid with gold, which made it look more upscale. The dishes were generous in portion and the proprietress was polite.
"Auntie is amazing." Zhou Yue and Kang Xingxing sat at a plastic table outside the store, enjoying the evening breeze and watching the busy figure of the store owner. They said, "Let's open a restaurant in the future."
"The shop next to Old Walnut Crisps has closed down, so we'll open the restaurant there from now on." She lowered her head to admire the ring on her hand. The cheap silver-plated ring shone like a diamond on her slender white hand. Kang Xingxing put it on her right middle finger. She took it off and put it on her ring finger.
"Yeah," Kang Xingxing put all the twice-cooked pork into her bowl and only ate the garlic sprouts and fermented black beans herself. "I can still buy some peach cakes for Aunt Dai Yan after we close the shop."
"Yes." Zhou Yue looked at the bright stars in the night sky and smiled foolishly.
The proprietress's son, who looked about four or five years old, came running over. The glass bottles of orange soda looked particularly large in his arms. He placed one in front of Zhou Yue and Kang Xingxing, each with a straw. He thoughtfully inserted a straw and said in a baby voice, "Brother and sister, drink some soda!"
"Hey! Thank you! You are so good! So cute!" Zhou Yue and Kang Xingxing were so happy that they teased the little meat ball for a long time, until the proprietress stuck her head out, wiped her hands with her apron and called her son to come in to help. Then he waved his chubby hands and said in a clear childish voice: "Goodbye, brother and sister!" Then he turned and ran away.
On the day the high school entrance exam results were announced, Zhou Yue and Kang Xingxing went to school specifically to get paper transcripts. They had already checked their scores over the phone and knew they had passed without a doubt, but Zhou Yue still wanted to get the paper transcript to show her mother.
They went from office to office, thanking each teacher who had taught them. Zhou Yue was the most favored by Chinese teacher Chen. She stayed in the office for a long time, eating the Danish cookies that the teacher had hidden in the desk and drinking the Xiangpiaopiao milk tea that the teacher had made for her. She had never thought Xiangpiaopiao milk tea was so delicious. Years later, she still remembered it as taro milk tea with sweet coconut flakes in it...
On their way back, they skipped and danced under the tree-lined path, enjoying the mottled shadows of the trees on their faces. The sky was so blue, and the white clouds floated by like cotton candy.
But Dai Yan wasn't very happy. When they got home, she was mixing stuffing and kneading dough in the kitchen, saying she was going to make dumplings. Zhou Yue handed her report card. She stopped to take a look, smiled, and hummed. She wiped her nose with her flour-soaked hand, which was covered in white. She nudged her with her elbow and said, "Go buy some salt with your brother. We're out of salt."
But the compartment in the seasoning box labeled "Salt" was full.
"Aunt Dai Yan knew we could pass the exam, so she wasn't that surprised." Kang Xingxing was comforting Zhou Yue along the way. The two of them walked across the Bridge of Sighs holding salt. For the first time, Zhou Yue didn't pay attention to her beautiful face in the water. She only lowered her head to look at the shadows of the two people on the blue brick and stone steps.
Those were the saltiest dumplings Zhou Yue had ever eaten in her life. They were so salty and bitter that she couldn't swallow them at all. She forced herself to eat three of them. Kang Xingxing was so patient that she couldn't eat any more after eating ten. The two of them quietly put down their chopsticks and looked at Dai Yan's face nervously.
But Dai Yan seemed to have no sense of taste. She held the bowl with a wooden face and ate one after another. She had her back to the window, and the setting sun behind her was blood red. The two children were scared by her eating.
Zhou Yue looked at it and saw only a plate of dumplings, more than thirty of them. What difference could there be? She tried to pick up another one and took a bite. The saltiness made her grimace.
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