Chapter 89
Jian Sheng only heard that Chen Zhoujing had gone abroad after she enrolled in school, and those last remaining illusions seemed to have been shattered.
She began to become even more taciturn, unusually quiet.
However, she also has an unlimited and unrestrained tolerance for others, which leads her roommates to always say that she has a good personality, although she is a bit aloof.
She has a lot of courses in her first and second years of college, usually from Monday to Friday. She would work part-time on Saturdays and Sundays, mostly in painting or at a flower shop.
She is very frugal and keeps most of her money in her bank account.
But Jian Qingyao would occasionally transfer money to her card. When she refused, he would say he wanted to mess with her. He would often appear at her school gate on weekends around this time, bringing Yang Shao to ask her to go out for dinner.
Sometimes he's all alone.
The last class on Friday afternoon of my sophomore year, second semester.
Jian Sheng and her two roommates, who were going out to play, were walking towards the exit of the campus. She looked up a few times but didn't see Jian Qingyao. She was about to send him a message.
Before she could even take out her phone, Jian Qingyao's voice reached her ears.
"Simple voice." Jian Qingyao's voice was very low, and his emotions were not easily discernible without careful listening.
Jian Sheng raised his eyes and saw Jian Qingyao's familiar figure walking towards him from the crowd.
She squinted for a moment, and the person was already in front of her.
"Jian Sheng, this is...."
"Who is it, Jian Sheng?"
Her roommate tugged at her sleeve, and Jian Sheng noticed many eyes on her. She pursed her lips and said, "My brother."
"Then I'll be going now, bye-bye." She waved to the two of them and walked to Jian Qingyao's side.
Jian Sheng glanced around a few times, then curled his lip and said, "Showing off."
Jian Qingyao patted her on the head: "Your mouth is like it's been poisoned; you'll poison yourself to death one day."
He chuckled and glanced at her shoulder-length hair: "Let's go eat."
"Where is Yang Shao?" she asked.
Jian Qingyao took a breath and said things he didn't want to hear: "Am I your brother or is he your brother?"
Jian Sheng glanced at him and said, "You made him angry again, and you two had a fight."
"Why do you always side with outsiders!" Jian Qingyao was speechless.
“I didn’t. He has such a good temper. Only you are so fierce.” Jian Sheng told the truth, but Jian Qingyao fell silent. She saw his rare seriousness and disappointment, so she didn’t add fuel to the fire.
She changed the subject: "What do you want to eat?"
Jian Qingyao took out his phone and scrolled through an app: "Shall we go eat Thai food?"
Thai food is what Yang Shao likes to eat. Jian Sheng didn't respond to that, but only said, "But I want to eat stir-fried dishes."
Jian Qingyao paused for a moment, then said, "Oh, right, you like stir-fried dishes. Let's go, whatever you like."
The restaurant was located in Xiqi Yintai City. After ordering, Jian Qingyao went downstairs to get two cups of milk tea. When he came back up, he tossed her a phone case that he didn't know where he got it from.
He tossed it to Jian Sheng and said, "You got it for free by scanning the code. I think it's cute and a good match for you."
Jian clicked his tongue and said, "This... blue seems to be..."
She didn't say anything, but they both understood.
The meal took quite a while, and Jian Sheng found Jian Qingyao a bit strange. He was unusually quiet, checking his phone and replying to messages every now and then.
Just as she was about to ask him what was going on, someone called her, and she looked up.
Jian Qingyao turned his head in the direction of the sound.
Four boys stood behind Jian Qingyao. The one in the middle who greeted her had reddened ears and a stiff expression as he looked at Jian Qingyao. The other three stood behind her, their expressions not much better.
Jian Qingyao instantly understood what it meant. He glanced at the people at the next table who had just finished eating and left.
"Classmate?" he asked in a low voice.
Jian Sheng nodded, then smiled at the boy who greeted her.
Jian Qingyao suddenly laughed and said warmly, "You've come to eat too?"
"Sit down, sit down. The people at the next table just left. Scan the code to order and see what you want to eat. You can scan the code, order, and pay for it yourselves. No need to be shy."
"..." Jian Sheng opened his mouth, not understanding what Jian Qingyao meant, and glared at him.
Several boys pushed and shoved their way to their seats. The tall boy in the lead sat next to Jian Sheng on the sofa against the wall, with little difference in distance between them.
He turned his head and waved at Jian Sheng, then shyly turned his head away.
Jian Qingyao was amused by what he saw. He tried to suppress his laughter, but he couldn't hold it in any longer and covered his face, laughing for a long time.
Jian Sheng took a breath: "Are you crazy?"
"What are you laughing at?" She raised her hand and poked Jian Qingyao's arm.
Jian Qingyao waved her hand: "No, no, no, I think this dish is quite delicious."
He lowered his hand, glanced at the four people staring intently at him at the next table, stopped smiling, leaned forward, and asked Jian in a low voice, "Suitor?"
Jian Sheng licked his lips and changed the subject: "...This dish is indeed quite delicious."
Jian Qingyao's smile deepened, and he lowered his voice, saying, "This young man is quite funny. Look at his face, it's as black as a lump of coal."
"He doesn't think I'm your boyfriend, does he? Hahahaha."
"Those four of them almost see right through me..."
Jian Sheng nudged his shoulder: "Hurry up and eat, then go back and apologize to Brother Yang Shao."
When Yang Shao was mentioned, Jian Qingyao's smile froze. He leaned back listlessly and stuffed a piece of egg into his mouth.
Finding the food tasteless, he turned his head and raised an eyebrow at the dark-faced man.
Jian Sheng rolled his eyes inwardly, but Jian Qingyao didn't do anything else strange.
He chewed a few bites of food and said casually, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket."
"Sometimes you have to admit that what you liked in the past might just have been for that particular period of time."
He suddenly sighed, speaking cryptically, but Jian Sheng knew he was referring to Chen Zhoujing.
Perhaps Jian Qingyao could also see that she was thinking about him all the time, to the point that she filled her free time with busyness.
But it was all in vain. She could even spend every spare moment recalling her past experiences with him.
It was during the process of recalling that she suddenly understood what Lin You meant when he said to unravel the mystery and find the facts hidden in the details.
I used to think it was impossible, but now I truly believe it.
You only truly understand some things when they happen to you.
Seeing that she didn't speak, Jian Qingyao didn't intend to say anything too harsh. He simply raised his chin at the boy with the stern face and said, "The young man is quite good-looking, but his face is a bit grumpy."
"Much better than some people."
"At least give a response; people have been staring at you for ages."
Jian Sheng glared at him, then turned her head to look at the boy. When the boy saw her looking over, he immediately sat up straight and grinned at her.
Jian Sheng smiled back, then turned her head to continue eating.
After that, he stopped paying attention to the little actions and glances from the people at the next table.
After dinner, Jian Qingyao took her for a walk along the lake, and Jian Sheng felt that he had something to say.
But she didn't wait for him until he dropped her off at the school gate. Just as Jian Sheng was about to get out of the car, he suddenly called out to her.
"Simplified pronunciation".
Her fingers rested on the car door, her back to Jian Qingyao, and she didn't turn around.
Jian Qingyao remained silent for a long time. Jian Sheng continued in this position and remained silent for a while before calmly saying, "My parents are divorced."
Jian Sheng shuddered, a chill running through her limbs and down her entire torso.
She slowly turned around: "Why?"
Jian Qingyao seemed unmoved: "There's no reason why. It was an arranged marriage, and there was no affection between the two of them."
Jian Qingyao grew up amidst the anger and criticism of Gu Shu and Jian Guangyao. He always felt that they would divorce sooner or later, and he worried about it from childhood to adulthood. However, when he was suddenly told that they were getting a divorce, he calmed down instead.
They made a dignified choice three years after Ye Hua's death, after he was admitted to university, and after his business had started to show some promise.
He didn't have much to say, but he felt that some things wouldn't follow the rules so easily, and everything has a point of breakthrough.
Jian Qingyao glanced sideways at Jian Sheng's eyes, which were glistening with tiny tears, and frowned, saying, "Don't mind what I used to say to you about things like family of origin."
"I didn't expect you..." He only thought that his family was just as bad as Chen Zhoujing's family, which is why he got so angry when Jian Sheng cared about Chen Zhoujing.
Because he knows that he is a mentally unhealthy person, and he knows that the influence of his family on him, even after he became an adult and went out to study and earn money, cannot be erased.
But he also felt that he was old enough not to worry about these things anymore, and that he shouldn't end up only feeling sorry for himself.
Jian Qingyao sniffed: "What are you doing?"
Jian Sheng blinked and lowered his head.
Jian Qingyao chuckled, "What do you mean?"
"You won't be sad for me, will you?"
"We're the kind of people who'll go to war whenever there's a battlefield, and fight whenever there's a battle. You won't be sad for me here, will you?"
Jian Sheng glared at him, annoyed, and said, "At a time like this, you're still joking with me. You must be feeling really bad."
Her eyes were a little red, and the dim light inside the car enveloped her hair, embedding warmth within it.
Her voice trembled with tears: "Then what will you do?"
"What do I need to do? I'm all grown up now. It's really nothing. They're just not together anymore, but they'll still see each other... I'm fine."
"I just wanted to tell you that the house is for you. I... we'll talk about it later. I'll be back for the Chinese New Year."
He spoke hesitantly, but Jian Sheng could tell: "Are you leaving me too?"
"You're going abroad too, aren't you?"
Jian Qingyao remained silent, watching her tears flow, his emotions rising.
"Don't cry..." he said, somewhat at a loss. "I..."
"You came here today to say goodbye..." Jian burst into tears, her emotions having been bottled up for so long that she seemed to have forgotten how to react.
But Jian Qingyao, her last straw, instantly broke her down.
She had become accustomed to many things, but these habits were all being forced upon her to change.
Jian Sheng watched him panic and become speechless, constantly handing her tissues, and cried even harder.
Jian Qingyao scratched the back of his head: "Stop crying, damn it."
"I didn't say I was going abroad!"
"Fine, I won't go. I'll stay in Jiangzhou! Don't cry!!!" He took out another tissue and wiped her eyes.
"Damn it, I'm not going." He said helplessly, but his brows and eyes couldn't hide his worry.
Jian Sheng cried loudly for a while before she stopped.
She glared at him: "Go if you want, I don't want you."
Jian Qingyao laughed in exasperation: "I beg you, you want me to go, okay? I'm not going, so don't overthink it."
Jian Sheng blinked hard a few times to calm herself down, and said through tears, "You don't need to worry about me."
"Whether you go or not doesn't depend on my wishes. You can do whatever you want, as long as you think it's good."
"You promised to come back to see me during the Chinese New Year..."
After she finished speaking, she turned her back to him and cried.
Jian Qingyao only learned today that Jian Sheng was very dependent on him. Her temper and her reluctance to trouble others made him think that she could handle everything on her own. Sometimes he even thought she was cool when she didn't have any emotional fluctuations.
But he didn't know that many of her emotional triggers were hidden in places unknown to others.
He didn't know this point as thoroughly as Chen Zhoujing.
Jian Qingyao patted her back, his tone gentler than ever before: "We haven't decided whether to go out or not yet, so don't cry."
As Jian Sheng listened to his voice, a few more tears fell.
"Oh," she said, opening the car door. "Let me know when you leave."
"I won't come to see you." After saying that, she closed the door and waved to him through the dark window.
Not long after she entered the campus, Jian Qingyao received several messages on WeChat.
- Just kidding, I'll see you off when you leave.
Brother, you're not useless, and you don't have a bad temper. You have your own ideas, and although your words can be harsh at times, you're a very good person.
-: You can go out if you want. I'm only crying because I can't bear to leave you, and I'm too embarrassed to say it.
Two minutes later.
- Jian Qingyao, no matter what, we are family.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
