8 Chapter 8
◎So you guys slept in the same room last night◎
"Yes," Jiang Xun answered without hesitation. "I've had a crush on her since junior high school. We agreed to take the entrance exam for No. 2 Middle School together, but ended up being in different classes in our freshman year. When I tried to contact her, she always said she was busy with her studies. I was worried our relationship would fade, so in our sophomore year, I told my parents I wanted to switch to her class."
Liao Yishen suddenly asked, "How did you convince your parents to change shifts?"
Jiang Xun scratched his head sheepishly, and Sang Xinqi answered for him, "He said that teacher in that class was a good teacher, and he even tricked me into cheating on his mother. I was so scared of seeing her for a month."
After saying this, he covered his face with his hands, looking as if he was too embarrassed to face anyone.
Jiang Xun's voice dropped a few notches. "We held hands during the first semester of our second year of high school. I thought... we were together, but the next semester, she suddenly started avoiding me, refusing to tell me anything..." He curled his lips, "Then, out of spite, I cut off contact."
The air seemed to freeze.
Everyone looked at each other, and their hesitant expressions all showed the same conclusion: wasn't it obvious that they were being treated as backup?
"You guys..." Sang Xinqi was the first to break the silence, "What on earth is this girl thinking?"
"Typical backup operation," Tao Wen said bluntly.
Sang Xinqi gave her a look that said, "Great minds think alike." "I told him a long time ago that he was a backup, but unfortunately he didn't believe me."
Jiang Xun: “…”
"Enough, enough," he interrupted hastily, waving his hand. "We agreed on a single question, so why are you extending it to another discussion?"
If he let them continue talking, the beautiful memories he had carefully treasured would be torn to pieces.
Even now, even though she treated him like this, the image of that girl in his heart still stubbornly maintained its original appearance, the white dress in the sun, the shallow dimples when she smiled.
After a few rounds of games, it was getting late and everyone dispersed.
Meng expected some of them to take a taxi, some to take the bus, while Sang Xinqi, Jiang Xun and Liao Yishen took a taxi to the badminton hall, rode bicycles all the way home.
As soon as I opened the door, a pair of shiny men's leather shoes caught my eye.
Sang Xinqi's eyes lit up, and her voice unconsciously rose, "Mom! Dad is here?"
She hurriedly threw off her sneakers and rushed into the living room in two steps, but when she looked around, her father was nowhere to be seen.
I can't help feeling a little disappointed.
"I didn't get home until nine o'clock. I had a lot of fun," Sang Guoyu sat upright on the sofa, the watch on her wrist shining coldly under the light.
Sang Xinqi smiled ingratiatingly and said, "I went to have dinner with my classmates from cram school."
She kept asking, "Did Dad come? I clearly saw his shoes..."
"Your dad, your dad, all he does all day is look for your dad," Sang Guoyu interrupted unhappily.
Sang Xinqi pouted in grievance. She could only see her father once a month.
Seeing her daughter like this, Sang Guoyu finally relented, "She's here, she's sleeping in the bedroom."
"Ah? So early..." Sang Xinqi's shoulders suddenly slumped.
Sang Guoyu said unhappily, "I just came back from abroad, and I went into the house to sleep as soon as I got back."
Sang Xinqi hummed.
The scene of her parents' divorce in the third year of junior high school is still vivid in her mind. She cried and made a fuss, and even went on a hunger strike to force them to divorce, but in the end she failed to save the family.
However, this sadness did not last long. Her father would come back to stay for a few days every month under the pretext of visiting her.
He is very busy with work and only has three days off a month, but he spends all of it with the mother and daughter. Gradually, this new normal seems to be no different from the previous one.
At first, the parents always remained silent when they met, but as time went by, they were able to talk to each other calmly.
The breakdown of this marriage was ultimately due to her father's problems. He was often away on business, and what was even worse was his stubborn temper. When faced with conflicts, he would remain silent and could sleep for three whole days without eating or drinking.
Sang Xinqi still remembers that fierce quarrel. Her mother braved the heavy rain to take her to the hospital alone with a high fever, and afterwards asked her father to resign.
But for my father, that job was his life. When he came back for vacation that month, he really went on a hunger strike in bed for three days. In the end, my mother was worried that he would get sick from hunger, so she took the initiative to give in and compromise.
This kind of drama had been played out too many times. In every argument, her mother was the first to give in. Until one day, her mother finally ran out of patience and asked, "What's the difference between having a husband and not having a husband?" The divorce agreement was signed.
Before she was ten, she had the surname Wei, following her father's. But her mother insisted on changing her surname. She said to her, "I raised you by myself, so he contributed some genes."
The determination in her mother's eyes when she said this made her feel extremely handsome.
That's how it should be, she agreed silently in her heart at that time.
But apart from these problems, her father was quite good to her. She sometimes talked to him about it, but he was like a rock and didn't listen.
…
As the morning light streamed into the room through the gauze curtains, Sang Xinqi climbed out of bed. The sound of spatulas colliding came from the kitchen, and the aroma of fried eggs wafted through the air.
She walked out of the room in her slippers, rubbing her eyes, and saw her father sitting in the morning light in the living room, flipping through a thick book with his slender fingers.
"Dad!" She flew over like a happy little bird.
Wei Shu looked up when he heard the voice, and his cold brows instantly melted, "Xinqi is awake?" There was an unconcealable tenderness in his voice.
Sang Xinqi sat down next to her father and looked at his profile carefully. "Have you lost weight again?" Her fingers unconsciously tugged at the slightly loose cuffs of his shirt.
"I'm busy with work," Shu said casually, his eyes turning to the corner of the living room, "I brought you some chocolate."
Following her father's gaze, Sang Xinqi noticed the cardboard box with foreign letters printed on it on the corner of the table.
She trotted over and found the box was much larger than she had imagined.
"So many?" She turned back in surprise.
Wei Shu pushed his glasses up and said, "There's something else."
Sang Xinqi suddenly became excited and opened the package in no time.
Several exquisite gift boxes were neatly stacked in the cardboard box, and on top were several boxes of imported chocolates.
Turning down, a haze blue backpack comes into view. The leather is so delicate that it glows softly in the morning light.
At the bottom were two thick books - "Berryman's Human Anatomy Drawing Instructions" and "Fashion Drawing", which were the fashion design books she had been longing for for a long time.
"Oh my God! Dad, you really bought it for me!" She hugged the picture album in her arms, jumped towards her father excitedly, and gave him a big hug.
Wei Shu was clearly unaccustomed to such intimate gestures, and his body stiffened for a moment. He hesitated, then raised his hand to pat his daughter's back. His usually cold eyes were now filled with unwavering doting.
"I'm your mother, am I not okay? We have prepared a room specially for you at home for you to design drawings and make clothes," Sang Guoyu came out of the kitchen holding fried eggs.
Sang Xinqi let go of her father and looked at her mother with a smile, her mouth as sweet as honey, "Mom, you are the best."
Sang Guoyu snorted lightly when she heard this, "Don't try that on me."
But the smile on her lips betrayed her good mood.
The aroma of porridge filled the air on the breakfast table.
Sang Xinqi sipped the hot porridge while listening to her father talk about the interesting things he encountered abroad.
Wei Shu doesn't talk much on weekdays, but when he talks about what he has seen and heard in foreign countries, his eyes are particularly lively.
After dinner, Sang Guoyu raised her chin towards her ex-husband and went to wash the dishes.
The tone was so natural as if they had never divorced.
Wei Shushu calmly stood up to clean up the dishes. Sang Xinqi followed him to the kitchen to help. When she came out, she saw her mother sitting leisurely on the sofa watching TV.
"Mom, aren't you going to work today?" Sang Xinqi asked curiously.
Sang Guoyu reached out and tapped her forehead. "Little fool, what day is it today?"
Sang Xinqi took out her phone and suddenly realized, "Ah, it's Saturday!"
She almost forgot about the weekend because of the cram school she attended these days.
"The cram school is closed on Sundays, right?" Sang Guoyu asked.
"Well, just one day on Sunday," Sang Xinqi rubbed against her mother and suddenly lowered her voice. "Mom, when will you and Dad remarry?"
Sang Guoyu froze. "Nonsense! We can't possibly get back together."
Sang Xinqi said "Oh" and muttered softly, "So you two slept in the same room last night..."
"What did you say?" Sang Guoyu turned his head suddenly, his eyes sharp.
"Nothing, nothing!" Sang Xinqi quickly waved her hands and looked away as if nothing had happened.
She would never admit that when she was thirsty and wanted to drink water in the middle of the night, she happened to see her father walking into her mother's bedroom through the crack in the door, holding a cup of water.
She just didn't know when his father started sleeping with his mother, and why she hadn't noticed it before.
It was almost eight o'clock when Sang Xinqi hurried downstairs and happened to run into Jiang Xun pushing a bicycle out of the garage. She jogged a few steps and jumped onto the back seat skillfully.
"What treasure is in this bag?" Jiang Xun noticed the paper bag in her hand with his sharp eyes.
Sang Xinqi shook the bag mysteriously, "My dad brought some chocolates, specially for you to try."
"Uncle Wei is back?" Jiang Xun exclaimed exaggeratedly, "When did he arrive?"
"Last night," Sang Xinqi had not finished speaking when her bicycle had already sped out of the community.
The two chatted and laughed all the way until they arrived at the cram school in the badminton hall. Sang Xinqi distributed chocolates to everyone. Tao Wen held the exquisite packaging and exclaimed, "It's all in English! It must be delicious."
"Yeah, but it's a bit bitter," Sang Xinqi explained, "My dad knows I don't like things that are too sweet."
Chen Yanyan sipped it and savored it. It doesn't matter, it tastes even better this way."
As they were talking, Teacher Meng pushed the door open and the six of them immediately returned to their seats to study.
In the blink of an eye, the morning's classes passed with the rustling sound of pen tips and paper.
Walking out of the air-conditioned classroom, the hot and humid air instantly enveloped me. Tao Wen's complaints came from the front, "What kind of weather is this? It's so hot and stuffy!"
Jiang Xun immediately agreed, "Exactly, it's hard to breathe."
Sang Xinqi was lost in thought when she suddenly heard a deep voice beside her, "The chocolate is delicious."
She turned her head and met Liao Yishen's smiling eyes. The boy's slightly raised lips looked particularly beautiful, which made her dazed for a moment.
"Right?" After coming back to her senses, her eyes sparkled and her eyebrows curved into crescents. "I like this flavor of chocolate the most, slightly bitter!" Her voice was filled with unconcealable joy.
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