There was a crack in the curtains of the back window of the classroom, and the golden-red sunset light slanted in and fell on Chao Youye's paper.
Chao Youye's right hand holding the ballpoint pen hovered in mid-air, and the tip of the pen cast a slender shadow on the paper, like a hesitant sword.
The English letters in the title suddenly twisted into tadpole shapes, slithering across the lined paper. He subconsciously pressed his left thumb against his temple and his index finger against his brow. This position caused the sleeve of his school uniform to slide to his elbow, revealing the pale blue veins on his forearm.
A minute later, he picked up the pen beside him and scribbled down the answer he had been pondering for a long time.
Chao Youye put the bag on her shoulder and left the classroom without looking back.
He has been in Donglin No. 1 Middle School for some time. Donglin is still some distance away from Beihuai.
Suddenly, Chao Youye stopped at the entrance of the alley and continued forward.
A warning sign reading "Heavy Construction Site" hung askew on a rusty wire fence. From inside came the crisp sound of a schoolbag zipper ripping. Chao Youye saw three pairs of muddy white sneakers surrounding a huddled figure in the middle.
The shadow was holding something tightly in his arms, and there were messy shoe prints on the back of his light blue school uniform.
"Why are you pretending to be so noble?"
The girl with chestnut-colored hair picked up a sketchbook with her fingernail. "Last time I poured glue into your paint, you didn't cry. Why are you shaking like this this time?"
Jiang Zhiran's glasses had slipped to the tip of her nose, and her eyelashes cast spiderweb-like cracks across her pale face. Muddy water was dripping from her soaked skirt, leaving dark marks on the cement floor.
Xu Yi deliberately opened the cover of the sketchbook, revealing the yellowed words "For Jiang Zhiran's seventh birthday".
"Give it back to me..." The sudden burst of strength stunned the three attackers. When she pounced, Xu Yi's utility knife had already cut through the first sheet of drawing paper.
Chao Youye's phone suddenly rang with the Dean's ringtone. He turned the volume up to the maximum, letting the "Athletes' March" blast across the empty construction site, while simultaneously kicking hard at the rusty iron gate.
The sound of metal colliding echoed in the twilight, sounding very much like the hurried footsteps of teachers.
"Someone's coming!" Another short-haired girl stepped back in panic, knocking over her milk tea cup. Taking advantage of the chaos, Chao Youye slipped through the gap in the broken wall, grabbed half a red brick and smashed it at the stacked plastic buckets in the distance.
Amidst the huge empty noise, Xu Yi's scream got stuck in her throat.
As the three figures hurriedly disappeared beyond the wire fence, Jiang Zhiran was kneeling on the ground, piecing together the torn pieces of drawing paper. Rain suddenly fell, painting the sunflowers left by his mother into a hazy golden halo.
When she looked up, she saw the boy squatting against the light to help her pick up the drawing paper.
"Thank you...really...thank you so much."
Her voice was not loud, but Chao Youye could hear every word clearly.
"It's just a piece of cake."
Chao Youye's tone was very flat. After helping her pick up the things, he turned around and left.
"Wait, wait..."
Jiang Zhiran nervously grabbed the painting with his hands and called out to Chao Youye who was about to leave.
"Anything else?"
"Well... I'll treat you to a meal since you just helped me."
"No need."
Jiang Zhiran stood there blankly, looking at the boy who was leaving, tears streaming down her face.
"Are you okay..."
He was also just a young man with a blurry back, but Jiang Zhiran remembered him for a long time.
The other party also helped her at that time.
"Hey, brother is really kind."
Chao Youye had only taken a few steps when he heard this voice that he hated so much.
Wu Zeyu saw everything that had just happened clearly.
Chao Youye didn't want to pay any attention to him at all, so she turned around and prepared to leave.
"Brother, don't be so cold. Don't you want to see me? I've missed you so much since you left..."
Wu Zeyu pretended to be very affectionate and pulled Chao Youye's clothes.
"What are you doing here?"
"I just wanted to come see you."
Chao Youye ruthlessly slapped his misbehaving hand away.
A luxury private car stopped on the side of the road at some point, and this scene was also recorded directly.
"This rebellious son is still the same as before, with a bad temper."
Said to the south.
Secretary beside:……………………
After Chao Youye left, Chao Nanxing sometimes felt like something was missing from his family. After all, he was his own son, and he hadn't shown much love and care for him over the years. But when he thought of the photo of his son kissing a man, he became furious.
Jiang Zhiran returned to the rental house.
"Jiang Zhiran, you still remember to come back. Do you want to see what time it is? It's already seven o'clock."
"You don't study hard every day, and you just do all sorts of messy things. If doing these things can improve your grades, wouldn't everyone do it? Look at Cheng Xiao, he studies hard every day, and then look at what you're becoming like day by day."
Cheng's mother's face was full of displeasure, and she said a lot to Jiang Zhiran.
"I spoke to you, are you mute?"
Seeing that a slap was about to fall, Jiang Zhiran dodged to the side and the slap missed.
"Sister, you're back."
Cheng Xiao appeared out of nowhere.
He also seemed to quickly understand the current situation.
"Xiao Xiao, weren't you studying in your room? Why did you come out?"
Cheng Hong's expression changed at the speed of light, becoming gentle.
"I have some questions I don't understand, and I want to ask my sister."
Looking at Cheng Xiao with a smile in her eyes, Jiang Zhiran said nothing, but still followed her into the house.
"Sister, what are you doing...?"
"It's none of your business."
Jiang Zhiran uttered these words indifferently.
The light in Cheng Xiao's eyes dimmed. In his memory, his sister had loved him very much when they were young, but as they grew older, her eyes were filled with indifference towards him, and the tenderness she had once possessed was long gone.
"Which question do you not understand?"
"This question."
Jiang Zhiran just glanced at the question and quickly explained it to him.
She explained the problem neither too fast nor too slow, but Cheng Xiao listened very attentively.
It seemed like his sister hadn't explained the questions to her for a long time.
"Thank you, sister~"
The young man's voice sounded like it was soaked in sugar water, making people feel uneasy.
Jiang Zhiran just said "hmm" and left his room quietly.
Her family was a reconstituted one, and she didn't like her younger brother. He was like his mother, a poisonous rose with thorns. It turned out that her father had been cheating on her a long time ago, and when her mother learned the truth, she went to catch him in the act and was unfortunately hit and killed by a car.
Although the party that hit the person behind paid a lot of money, the dead could not be resurrected. Only three months after her mother's death, her father brought a woman named Cheng Hong into the house, and later she had a half-brother Cheng Xiao.
At first, she was unaware of the situation and was quite fond of her younger brother. But when she learned the truth at the age of 14, she felt like she had been slapped in the face.
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