Chapter 60: The Guide to Conquering the Happiest High School Student...
It's peak time at the mall right now, and there are a lot of people shopping, especially those standing at the entrance of the arcade.
Many young people passed by, wearing eye-catching school uniforms. Anyone could tell at a glance that they were students. The scene was pleasing to the eye, and passersby couldn't help but take a few extra glances at them.
The boy was very tall, his face was not visible, but his height alone was enough to make him handsome. He was a full head taller than the girl in his arms, yet he leaned down and buried his head deep in the girl's shoulder, his broad and strong arms around her shoulders, his hands holding her delicate shoulders, as if it were a kind of intense dependence, or a restraint imposed by fear of the other leaving.
Because of the difference in their body sizes, the girl seemed to be trapped inside him. To compensate for her height, she straightened her legs under her short skirt and slightly raised her toes so that it would be easier for the boy to bend over.
Noticing that passersby were looking at him, Xiang Di lowered his eyes somewhat self-deceivingly.
She didn't know what was wrong with him; he suddenly became so vulnerable, transforming from a cool, aloof cat who always looked up at people with an air of superiority into a soft-furred dog that needed comforting.
The reason he was called a soft-haired big dog was because Bai Jiangxin's short hair was brushing against her neck at that moment. It felt very soft and not prickly at all. It gently swept across her neck skin and felt quite comfortable.
Xiang Di was very satisfied with his soft hair texture.
[Such soft hair, perfect for giving me oral sex, so even if I bury my whole head under it, it won't poke me...]
Just as her mind was wandering off to a tangent, she was suddenly pushed away by the person in front of her.
"..."
Bai Jiangxin looked at her with a complex expression.
Xiang Di: "...What's wrong?"
Bai Jiangxin didn't say anything, but raised his hand, curled his fingers, and flicked her forehead with a hard flick.
Xiang Di gasped softly, clutching her forehead, and looked at him in confusion.
Why did you suddenly hit me?
Bai Jiangxin glanced at her briefly, turned his head slightly, and said in a hoarse voice, "You know what you're doing."
She ruined what should have been a warm and loving hug.
Xiang Di was even more confused.
Does she know what she's doing? What could she possibly know?
She didn't do anything.
-
There was no point in just standing at the entrance of the arcade, so Bai Jiangxin decided to go in and have some fun.
Xiang Di originally wanted him to help her win a prize, but as soon as he went in, Ye Minjia dragged him off to fight zombies.
"Quick, quick, bro, Wang Sichen is such a noob, I can't take it anymore! He got wiped out by zombies as soon as he landed! You need to take over right now!"
Bai Jiangxin glanced at Xiang Di, who immediately said, "Go ahead, go ahead, I'll watch you fight the zombies first."
Bai Jiangxin took the AK|47 handed to him by Ye Minjia. It turned out that Ye Minjia's skill level wasn't much better; he was just not as bad as Wang Sichen.
Wang Sichen scoffed, "Laughable! You're just blaming others for your own faults. How can you be so shameless?"
"Get down here." Bai Jiangxin directly ordered him to leave.
Ye Minjia: "If I go down there, you'll have no teammates! Do you want to be a lone wolf?!"
Bai Jiangxin didn't even glance at him, and instead gestured with his chin towards Zhou Linxiao, who was watching from the sidelines: "Want to play a round?"
Zhou Linxiao readily accepted.
When you encounter a player with good skills, others can't help but gather around to watch. Sure enough, in no time, the area around them was filled with elementary and middle school students watching.
These little boys love to run to the arcade as soon as they get out of school. When they see other people's cool moves, they get even more excited than the boys themselves.
"Awesome!"
"So cool!"
"Wow, you can do that?! I've learned something new!"
The two were skilled, handsome, and attractive, drawing both men and women. In addition, the elementary school students watching were particularly good at shouting, attracting more and more people to surround them. The four people traveling with them couldn't stand the shouting of the elementary school students and retreated.
"This is too exaggerated." Ye Minjia said with a twitch of his lips, "If you didn't know better, you would think that the two of them formed an idol boy group and held a fan meeting."
The four people stood on the outside and couldn't see how the zombie fight was going, but judging from the waves of cheers from the elementary school students, they must have been fighting their way through and were heading straight for the boss level.
It has to be said that although the elementary school students were noisy, they really provided a lot of emotional value. With a group of boys watching with great enthusiasm, Bai Jiangxin and Zhou Linxiao were invincible. They played for half an hour straight and finally reached the zombie boss's hometown, breaking the highest record on the machine.
After the game ended and the adults left, the two of them were immediately surrounded by elementary school students.
"Brother, how did you guys reload so fast? That was absolutely awesome!"
"Brother, can you play a game with me?"
"Brother, can I add you on QQ? Let's play King of Glory together sometime."
A group of little boys looked at him with adoration and showered him with compliments, leaving the two high school boys, who had little experience with children, completely bewildered.
The two girls were watching the spectacle, while Wang Sichen and Ye Minjia were green with envy. They had never been this jealous before, even when they saw girls from other classes deliberately passing by their classroom to peek at the two of them.
When the two of them were fighting zombies, the group of elementary school students didn't even glance at them.
No, as a dignified male high school student, he had to reclaim his place among the elementary school students. So the two of them put their heads together and went forward to declare war.
"Come on, let's have a game, dare you? The loser calls me godfather."
"Then you'd better be prepared to call him 'Dad'."
In order to win the applause of the elementary school students, four male high school students started a head-splitting contest.
“Childish, extremely childish.” Liang Qianqian shook her head. “It’s one thing for Ye Minjia to be childish, but I didn’t expect Bai Jiangxin to be so childish as well.”
She turned her head, seeking Xiang Di's approval: "Isn't this childish?"
Xiang Di chuckled: "It's good to be childish once in a while."
She watched as Bai Jiangxin was surrounded by a group of children, winning their cheers for a cool move. Although he didn't show much pride, his slightly raised eyebrows and upturned lips betrayed his secret delight.
Seeing his seamless cooperation with Zhou Linxiao, and the two exchanging a mutually affirming glance, Ye Minjia and Wang Sichen became dissatisfied and attempted to sabotage him from behind. He discovered their plan, turned his attention away from the screen, and pointed his gun at the two of them.
Bai Jiangxin narrowed his eyes, aimed the gun at them, and then slightly parted his lips, making an onomatopoeic "bang".
Ye Minjia was startled at first, but quickly realized that it was just a toy gun.
He was speechless: "Bai Jiangxin, are you trying to make me laugh to death? You're doing voice acting? How childish are you?"
Bai Jiangxin raised an eyebrow: "Weren't you scared too, dubbing?"
"No, it's not okay."
You know in your heart whether it's true or not.
Zhou Linxiao, who was fighting alone, put down his gun, both laughing and crying: "Bai Jiangxin, why are you shooting at those two zombies when you're not even pointing your gun at them? We're already dead."
Seeing "game over" on the screen, Ye Minjia gloated and laughed loudly. In the end, the four boys made a ruckus in front of a group of elementary school students, completely disregarding their image as older high school students.
"Ugh, it's unbearable to watch, so childish." Liang Qianqian pulled Xiang Di away, "Let's go somewhere else and do something else, and make sure no one knows that we know those four."
Xiang Di was pulled away, and she looked back several times with reluctance.
She used to think that she liked Bai Jiangxin, who was aloof and didn't like to talk to people. But now she realized that she just liked Bai Jiangxin as a person. So whether he was distant and cold in the past or he was lively and childish now, she liked him.
-
The arcades in shopping malls usually don't stay open too late. There's still more than half an hour before closing time, and the parents are already calling.
First, Wang Sichen's mother called and told Wang Sichen to come home quickly. Then, Liang's father and Ye's father called, but they weren't urging their child to come home. Instead, they said they themselves would be home late, so they wanted their child to help cover for them in front of their wives when they got home.
When Liang Qianqian and Ye Minjia heard that their father would be coming home late, they asked him, as usual, what he was going to do so late.
The two fathers' accounts turned out to be remarkably similar.
"Your Uncle Ye (Liang) and I are planning to go for a drink together."
After hanging up the phone, Liang Qianqian found Ye Minjia and asked him when his father and her father had become so close that they could even go out for a drink together after the parent-teacher conference.
Ye Minjia was even more confused than she was: "How would I know?"
They were in the same class for three years, and their fathers had met at parent-teacher conferences before, but they were just nodding acquaintances and hadn't even added each other on WeChat. How did they suddenly become like brothers today?
Later, Zhou Linxiao's uncle called to say that he had successfully completed the parent-teacher conference task, and even asked his nephew on the phone, "Nico, can you do me a favor?"
Zhou Linxiao: "Please speak."
"You mean your little classmate? Could you ask her for your uncle if her aunt is single?"
Zhou Linxiao was stunned.
"Weren't you sitting with her aunt at the parent-teacher conference? Why didn't you ask her yourself?"
The uncle coughed lightly: "If I were to directly ask someone if they're single, wouldn't that make me seem too calculating?"
"I see." Zhou Linxiao replied readily. "Then I'll inquire for you."
After hanging up the phone, Wang Sichen, who was next to Zhou Linxiao, guessed a lot from what he said and nudged his arm ambiguously.
"Hey, does your uncle have a crush on Xiang Di's aunt?"
Zhou Linxiao: "It should be."
"Wow, Xiang Di's aunt is so charming, she can even make someone fall in love at first sight at a parent-teacher conference," Wang Sichen said. "But your uncle is quite handsome too, maybe you could really develop a relationship with him. If Xiang Di's aunt becomes your aunt in the future, you and Xiang Di will be relatives."
"Aunt?" Zhou Linxiao raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, your uncle's wife, isn't that your aunt?" Wang Sichen looked around. "Where's Xiang Di? Let's quickly find her and ask if her aunt is single. I see her, she's by the claw machine, let's go—"
Just as Wang Sichen was about to go over, her arm was suddenly grabbed.
"What's wrong? Aren't you going to help your uncle find out?"
“You have to fight for everything yourself. What kind of uncle asks his nephew for help?” Zhou Linxiao said calmly. “My uncle doesn’t even have the guts to ask her face if she’s single, so what kind of aunt are we talking about? Don’t you agree?”
Wang Sichen grunted.
That seems to make some sense.
Forget it, it's his uncle's business. Even his own nephew isn't worried about it, so why should an outsider like him meddle?
"Since the parents have already called to urge us, why don't we go back?"
Zhou Linxiao nodded: "Let's go. It's not safe for the two girls to go home too late."
A group of people gathered, preparing to take the elevator directly to the underground parking lot.
Xiang Di was carrying a large bag full of her claw machine prizes. She had won a lot herself today, and others had also helped her win a lot.
To let her have her fill of playing, Bai Jiangxin bought her a basket full of game tokens and let her play as many as she wanted.
Apart from the two girls, the others weren't very interested in the dolls. Liang Qianqian picked out a few she liked and hung them on her schoolbag, while giving the rest to Xiang Di.
If she took them all home, Xiang Sheng would definitely accuse her of picking up trash outside. To deal with these dolls, Xiang Di gave some away randomly to other people before leaving the arcade, and then gave some away to passersby randomly after leaving.
When she reached the elevator, she still had a bag she hadn't delivered.
Yeh Min-chia joked, "Do you know what you look like right now? You look just like Santa Claus at Christmas, carrying a bag and handing out gifts all over the streets."
Xiang Di: "Well, I can't help it. Who told you to catch so many for me?"
"You like catching them, right? If you like it, we'll catch more for you. And you're blaming us now," Wang Sichen said. "If you want to blame someone, blame Bai Jiangxin. Who told him to buy you so many game coins?"
Xiang Di snorted lightly, thinking, "Trying to sow discord between her and Bai Jiangxin? Dream on."
Before the elevator even arrived, her phone rang in her bag.
Xiang Di quickly handed the bag to Bai Jiangxin, asking him to hold it for her. She then took out her phone from her backpack and went to the side to answer the call.
Ye Minjia looked at the bag of plush toys in Bai Jiangxin's hand, clicked her tongue, and pointed at Bai Jiangxin, saying, "You spent your money to win so many plush toys, but you gave them all away as soon as you left. In the end, all your money went to someone else."
Bai Jiangxin replied calmly, "It's not much money, as long as she's happy."
Ye Minjia sighed: "...Your uncle spoils his dad."
-
Xiang Di, who had thoroughly enjoyed playing the claw machine today, answered the phone.
"Hello, Auntie?"
My aunt called for no other reason than to give Xiang Di a brief summary of what she said at today's parent-teacher meeting.
Today's parent-teacher meeting covered three topics. First, the college entrance examination is in a little over a month. At this stage, improving grades is secondary; maintaining a stable mindset is the key to success. Therefore, the teacher asked parents to pay close attention to their children's physical and mental well-being during this period.
Secondly, the teachers have given parents a general overview of how to fill out college applications for each batch after the college entrance examination. The specifics will be discussed after the exam. Thirdly, the coming-of-age ceremony next month is scheduled for a weekday during the day, so parents will not be required to visit the school. However, we hope that parents can help their children prepare a formal dress in advance.
“I’ll prepare your dress, and then I’ll take you to get your hair and makeup done. I guarantee you’ll be the most dazzling person at your coming-of-age ceremony,” Luo Yayi said. “What kind of dress do you want to wear that day? Elsa again?”
Xiang Di said helplessly, "Those were clothes I liked when I was in elementary school. Who would still wear those after graduating from high school?"
"Oh, you've grown up. You don't even want to wear Princess Elsa anymore. Fine, then go online and pick one yourself. Send me the link when you're done, and I'll place the order for you."
Xiang Di chuckled and said, "I love you, Auntie."
"Love you, love you. Go home early today, don't stay out too late, or your brother will pick a fight with me again." Luo Yayi asked, "Should I drive to pick you up?"
"No need, no need, we have a car."
And it's a Rolls-Royce, too.
Luo Yayi: "Where did you get this car?"
Just as Xiang Di was about to explain to her aunt, her aunt suddenly exclaimed "Oh!"
"Mr. Yang, why haven't you left yet? Didn't you drive here today?"
A few minutes later, Luo Yayi got the whole story from Secretary Yang.
"Wow, Naoki-kun, you're pretty bold. You just got your license and you dared to drive a car worth over ten million on the road. He just drove off, and Secretary Yang didn't even have a car to ride in." Luo Yayi said with a smile, "Tell your Naoki-kun to drive carefully. I'll go now, I'm taking Secretary Yang to the airport to pick up his boss. I'll also say hello to my future in-laws. Bye-bye."
Xiang Di's eyes widened. Was her aunt going to see Bai Jiangxin's father?
Before she could even speak, Luo Yayi had already hung up the phone.
Xiang Di sighed, referring to her aunt who was always so energetic and impulsive.
After hanging up the phone, she told Bai Jiangxin, "It seems your father is back. Since we took his car, my aunt drove your father's secretary to the airport to pick him up."
"Hmm," Bai Jiangxin responded indifferently.
He didn't react much, but Ye Minjia reacted much more strongly.
"Your dad's back?" Ye Minjia asked worriedly. "Then let's take your dad's car out for a drive. He won't be angry, will he?"
Bai Jiangxin: "No."
Ye Minjia was still worried. The group had originally planned to take a taxi, but he wanted to experience riding in a luxury car, so Bai Jiangxin drove the car away.
Fortunately, the drive here was safe and uneventful. If something had happened to the car on the way back, he would have been in serious trouble.
Having already ridden in the Rolls-Royce pumpkin carriage once and had had their fill of the experience, Ye Minjia suggested that they skip the Rolls-Royce on the way back and hire a driver to take the car home, while the rest of them would take a taxi.
The others agreed, after all, the car was too expensive, and if there was any damage on the road, none of them would be able to sleep well tonight.
Bai Jiangxin followed the advice, paid extra on his phone to call an experienced driver to come and drive the car away.
Ye Minjia wanted to pay the chauffeur fee, but Bai Jiangxin refused.
With the car issue resolved, the group prepared to go home. Coincidentally, the mall had just closed, and the nearby bus and subway stations were immediately crowded.
The group planned to wait for a group of people to leave before they went. There was a non-motorized vehicle parking area near the mall entrance. Wang Sichen suddenly said, "Can you ride bicycles? How about we ride our bicycles to a place a bit further away and then take a ride?"
Ye Minjia's eyes lit up: "Hey, that's a great idea! We can enjoy the evening breeze too. You all know how to ride, right?"
It would be really disappointing if someone said they couldn't ride at this point, but luckily they all could.
Xiang Di also likes to enjoy the breeze, but she doesn't know where to put her bag of dolls.
Later, Liang Qianqian came up with a solution: she put the dolls into everyone's schoolbags, and if there was no room in the schoolbags, she hung them on the schoolbags.
The backpacks of senior high school students don't have much space, so when divided like this, everyone looks like a toy vendor on a shopping street, with their backpacks jingling and clattering with dolls.
The two girls were alright; they usually liked to hang small decorations on their backpacks anyway. As for the boys, their disdain was impossible to hide.
"What?!" Ye Minjia looked at her backpack with disdain. "I've never had so many things hanging on my backpack in my entire life."
There was no use complaining. The six people unlocked six shared bikes and rode past a group of pedestrians waiting for the bus.
Just after the Grain Rain season, the evening breeze was cool. Under the halo of the streetlights, six high school students wearing the same style of school uniforms—girls in shirts and skirts, boys in shirts and trousers—rode bicycles with backpacks adorned with exaggerated doll keychains, resembling a highly unified cycling team.
They weren't riding very fast, but the wind was strong enough to whip their school uniforms and hair around, making them feel so comfortable they wanted to close their eyes.
Ye Minjia couldn't hold back any longer, so he tilted his head back and let out a howl towards the sky.
He pulled his phone out of his pocket and shouted to the others in the wind, "How about we sing a song?"
What song are you going to sing?
Ye Minjia opened his music app and scrolled through the playlist. He had a graduation playlist that he had prepared long ago, and he planned to ask an acquaintance at the school radio station to play it for all the senior students a few days before the college entrance examination.
He flipped through the list, found a song, and said, "How about singing 'Cheers'? Do you know it?"
What if I can only sing the climax?
"Then let's just sing the climax!"
After saying that, Ye Minjia turned the phone volume up to the maximum, cleared his throat, and led the singing for everyone.
Three years have passed in the blink of an eye, and they have finally reached the age to sing this song. They have finally reached the day to officially toast and say goodbye to their youth.
To passersby, the evening breeze tonight was quite unique, carrying the scent of youth. That scent came from the school uniforms of these young high school students being blown about by the wind, their still-thick hair, their smiling faces, and their cheerful singing.
"Is it possible that one day, time could really go backwards?"
"Return to yours and mine, to the bygone years that can never be returned."
"Perhaps one day, when the world truly comes to an end, I will raise a glass with you, a toast made from the sweetness of our memories."
As Xiang Di was singing, a shadow suddenly appeared beside him.
She turned her head and saw Bai Jiangxin.
He didn't sing along, whether because he didn't know the song or because he couldn't let go of his image as the school heartthrob, but he kept smiling as others sang along.
He turned his head to look at her, and his lips, which were usually pressed into a straight line, were now completely relaxed, revealing his most hearty smile to her for the first time.
The ice suddenly cracked open, letting in a flood of sunlight. His eyes curved upwards, and tiny glimmers of light flickered within them. His usually stern face became unusually lively under the influence of his smile, giving him the most captivating youthful radiance.
The purity and gentleness he exuded at that moment were more breathtaking than the spring breeze, captivating all who looked away.
Xiang Di raised one hand, his fingers making a gesture as if he were holding a wine glass in the air.
"Cheers!" she said.
Bai Jiangxin also raised his hand and, imitating her, clinked glasses with her using a non-existent wine glass.
"In the end, one day, we will all become yesterday."
"You accompanied me through this once-in-a-lifetime, fleeting world."
"One day, which is today, I will express my gratitude to you that I've never been able to say before, and have another drink with you."
"One more drink and it'll be forever, drink and you'll live forever, year after year."
"Cheers." Bai Jiangxin said to her gently, "Thank you."
It's not that I like you, it's just thank you.
Whether as a classmate, a friend, someone I like, or my future girlfriend, thank you for appearing in my life.
I hope that after drinking this cup, you will be by my side in every year to come.
As long as you are here, I am willing to try to like this lively world and everyone in it.
This is a confession that is far more solemn than simply liking you.
Xiang Di was certain that, no matter how long she lived, she would remember this night for the rest of her life.
Not only should we remember Bai Jiangxin's smile at this moment, but also everyone who sang.
These three years were a time when her unrequited love came true, and also a time of friendship. She was grateful that her youth was filled with him and all of them.
At this moment, Xiang Di unilaterally declared in her heart that she was the happiest high school student in the world!
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