Chapter 74: South City Night Market
Xu Jiaojiao didn't give up, "Then wouldn't it be inconvenient to call my brother?"
Xu Jiqing said "hmm".
"Okay," Xu Jiaojiao sighed, her pigtails drooping, "but I miss her so much."
"Brother, don't you miss her?"
Xu Jiqing's jaw tightened, and he reached out to pinch her face, "Go do your homework first."
The flames on the stove were ice blue and jumping.
The water in the pot began to boil. Xu Jiqing put in the noodles and stirred them mechanically twice.
He thought of the binder clip that Su Xia was fiddling with, the plastic water cup with peeling paint, and the girl's clear almond-shaped eyes that looked extremely aggrieved.
Will he still do her homework in the future?
Will he miss her?
Xu Jiqing closed his eyes.
From today on, there are countless people who are willing to hold her in their hearts, and he is not one of them.
And the world around him is dark and dangerous.
Xu Jiqing thought, it would be nice to live like before.
Treat yourself as a sophisticated and cold machine. Keeping an eye on Xu Wenyao is the prerequisite for maintaining a normal life and protecting Xu Jiaojiao. Competition results are the tool to leverage the future and the only way to escape from this home with Xu Jiaojiao.
He doesn't need feelings, doesn't need pain or expectations, and doesn't need to hope for someone to touch him or hug him. All these emotions are delusions that must be suppressed.
He had no way to think, nor was he worthy.
-
Throughout the end of March, the seat next to Su Xia was empty.
She watched Xu Jiqing pack up his things and leave, and did not suspect anything at first, until she returned to school in early April and Teacher Ding cancelled her seat next to the podium.
The boy who was originally sitting there returned to his original seat, and someone else was sitting at Xu Jiqing's table.
Her new deskmate is Xu Ruiyang, with whom she had argued last semester.
It was lunch break on the day I changed seats.
Xu Ruiyang was shy, and his movements as he flipped through the textbook were clumsy, as if he had just met her for the first time. "Su Xia, I'm pretty good at physics and chemistry. If you have any questions in the future, feel free to ask me and I'll explain them to you... Please give me your guidance in the future."
The boy wore a pair of black-framed glasses. He was a typical high-scoring science student, and he was also fair-skinned and handsome.
But once you have seen the ocean, all other puddles are but puddles.
Her former deskmate and this one are completely different in every aspect.
Su Xia whispered, "I've already taught you."
The girl's eyebrows were as clear as water, and even when she frowned she looked pretty.
Xu Ruiyang stared at her blankly, as if he had lost his soul in that look. "What?"
Su Xia really wanted to hit him.
Are all boys like this?
Only save the memories that are beneficial to you and delete all the others.
He was gossiping about Xu Jiqing at the time and got slapped with the blackboard eraser several times, but he forgot about it in a blink of an eye.
Su Xia tried her best to suppress her anger, "What did Teacher Ding tell you? Is Xu Jiqing really not coming?"
"Right..."
Xu Ruiyang scratched his head. "Teacher Ding said that there were changes in the class and asked me to sit here from now on."
"Xu Jiqing was originally a competitive student. If this year's league goes well, he probably won't come back... He should have left a long time ago. Class S is like this."
He was actually just relaying it.
Su Xia thanked him.
For the entire afternoon, Xu Ruiyang's words "there are personnel changes" lingered in her mind, along with the tone Xu Jiqing used before leaving that day, and kept going back and forth in her mind.
Wait until the last class is over.
Su Xia couldn't hold back any longer, so she said goodbye to He Miao and went to eat, then strode quickly towards the administrative building.
At the door of the large classroom on the first floor, boys who had just finished their meal were walking in in twos and threes. Someone recognized her delicate face that was in the spotlight and pulled his companions back to look at her.
Su Xia didn't care.
Looking into the classroom, Xu Jiqing's seat was empty.
It’s different from the emptiness before, this time there is really nothing at all.
She had a bad feeling in her heart, and her palms were sweating with anxiety. She couldn't wait for Lin Lang to come back, so she grabbed someone and asked, "Excuse me, classmate, is Xu Jiqing not around recently?"
"...He, he's here, but he left early."
The boy whose clothes she grabbed blushed, a little flattered, and said, "He said something happened at home."
Su Xia became even more anxious, "What's the matter?"
"I don't know either."
"He doesn't like to talk much, he keeps to himself, and his relationship with us is average..."
"What time is the earliest to leave?"
The boy thought for a moment and said, "Around four o'clock."
Su Xia is not stupid.
The contestants that Xu Jiqing practices with are all at least in junior high school. If they do other part-time jobs, I have never heard of any of them starting at this time.
The only possibility was that he went to pick up Xu Jiaojiao from school.
During the Chinese New Year, Xu Jiaojiao said, "Dad is coming back." How many domestic violence offenders released from prison will reform?
If Xu Jiqing was unwilling to give him even this little bit of trust, then his current situation...
What would it be like?
In early April, everything warms up.
Su Xia felt a chill in her heart. The draft in the corridor blew into her collar, making her shiver all over.
Xu Jiqing's QQ nickname is very unique.
While others were trying to be cute, artistic and cool, he just put his name in parentheses and his phone number in a neat way, like a temporary worker who had just started working.
Throughout the dinner, Su Xia's heart beat faster and faster, and she no longer felt hungry. She called Xu Jiqing no less than twenty times.
No one answered.
No reply to the message.
The bell for the first evening study session rang, and Su Xia was silent for half a minute.
She quickly packed her bag and poked the back of the person in front of her. "Miaomiao, if Teacher Ding comes later, just say I'm taking cello lessons outside of school and I left in a hurry."
He Miao was stunned for a moment, "You really..."
"It'll be okay, please."
Su Xia didn't have time to say anything more. She squeezed out from behind Xu Ruiyang and ran downstairs through the back door.
This semester, her classes with Teacher Li were increased to four periods per week. In order to make it easier for her to practice piano outside the school, Su Xiaojuan asked for a long leave for her.
There was no facial recognition that year, so the security guards were lax with the art students and they could just say hello and leave the gate.
Su Xia ran into the subway station, passed security, and followed the route on her phone, heading towards Xu Jiqing's stall at the Nancheng Night Market.
Perhaps it was because of his reckless nature that Su Xia was used to doing things impulsively, acting recklessly based on instinct.
Will Xu Jiqing be at the night market at this time, or will he be at home with Xu Jiaojiao?
Su Xia didn't know.
She only knew they had moved, but had no idea where they lived.
A person like Xu Jiqing, what kind of life he is living, what kind of suffering he is enduring, as long as he doesn't want her to know, she really can't pry a single word out.
She could only go and see for herself.
In such a big river city, millions of people come and go.
Apart from the utopian No. 1 Middle School campus and the phone number that couldn't be reached, the only place where Xu Jiqing could be found was that small fried noodle stall.
It took more than an hour to get there. Su Xia took three subways and finally got out of the subway station at around eight o'clock.
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