Chapter Sixty-Two
Yu Youyi sat on a stone bench at the entrance of the amusement park, resting her chin on her hand.
November is already halfway over, and the feeling of winter is already quite strong.
Specifically, by 7 PM, it was pitch black, though amusement parks are usually brightly lit after dark, so you could see your hand in front of your face, let alone your fingers. You could even see the small moles on people's faces... You could see the smiling eyes and upturned corners of their mouths, and hear adults laughing and children playing...
You Youyi snorted and rubbed her eyes.
So this is what the teacher taught: using joyful colors to highlight sorrow.
Amidst the laughter and cheers, You Youyi continued to sit on the stone stool, enjoying the cool breeze, but this time she closed her eyes.
Forget about trash and tears, once you close your eyes it's all black, and you can't see anything.
She disliked Chinese class because of this. She never understood the emotions and feelings in the textbook and could only memorize them by rote. The Chinese teacher often made her stand as punishment. According to her mother, even if the neighbor's golden retriever wrote the Chinese, she would get a score of 60, while she got 59.
When the results came out, her mother went into a rage, grabbing a feather duster to beat her. Her father stood by, watching the spectacle as if no one was watching. She looked down and saw several deep red welts on the back of her hand, extending into her clothes... She quickly looked away and looked up. The injury was better left unseen; it felt like her whole arm was on fire... Ugh, what was that adjective again... Anyway, it hurt so much she wanted to cry.
You Youyi quickly raised her right hand to wipe her eyes. When her mother hit her, she deliberately avoided her right hand, which was used for writing, so the injuries were all on her left arm.
After she turned off her Little Genius watch, she put it in her pocket. While her mother was urinating after hitting her, she ran out of the house without even eating. She grabbed a coat and ran downstairs in one breath. There she met a golden retriever that was leisurely taking a walk. The dog wagged its head and wiggled its butt as it walked towards her, trying to rub its big head against her legs.
Now, whenever she sees this dog, she thinks of what her mother said about the golden retriever getting a 60 while she got a 59. Her classmates' comparisons were at least with people, while she was just a damn stupid yellow dog!
She glared angrily at the sixty-minute dog that was sticking its tongue out at her, and quickly ran out of the residential area.
Yu Youyi felt that closing her eyes to avoid the scoundrel was a mistake.
When I close my eyes, everything goes black, but my ears seem to be magnified; I can hear even the footsteps of passersby clearly, not to mention the piercing laughter and voices amplified a hundredfold...
In the darkness, a family of three happened to pass by.
"Honey, Mom thinks you've done very well on the test. You've done your best, haven't you?" the woman said gently, offering comfort.
“Yes, Dad thinks that as long as we’ve done our best, we’ve already succeeded, no matter the result. There will always be a first place in any exam, but that doesn’t mean we can only be considered successful if we get first place every time.” The man also patiently encouraged him.
"Come on, Mommy and Daddy will buy you cotton candy, then we'll go through the ticket check and play, okay? Being happy is the most important thing. Mommy and Daddy just want you to be happy and healthy, that's all..."
You Youyi raised her hand to cover her ears, and her eyes started to sting as if she had drunk vinegar, as did her nose.
Her mother had never spoken to her like that before, nor had her father. It was as if only you had to, you absolutely had to... these kinds of sentences made her stomach churn like a washing machine.
The darkness not only magnified her ears like a magnifying glass, but also amplified her sorrow.
She didn't want black anymore; she wanted trash too.
"...Yi?"
You Youyi sniffed, trying her best to hold back the tears welling up in her eyes, and the hands that were tightly covering her ears loosened involuntarily.
"...What are you doing?"
What are you doing?
You Youyi thought it was just people chatting on the roadside and didn't think much of it. Her hand, which had been covering her ears, was a little sore from the force she had used earlier, so she simply put it down.
"You Youyi," someone gently pinched her ear, "are you sitting here with your eyes closed, telling fortunes?"
That sound...
As the warmth on her ear disappeared, You Youyi suddenly opened her eyes.
"sister?!"
After calling out, she noticed a strange man next to her. Her lips trembled slightly, and the voice that came out was a little softer because she was unsure, but she was still puzzled: "Brother-in-law?"
"Hello, little beauty," Shen Yue replied cheerfully.
Although he wanted to readily agree, You Congxi, standing beside him, was clearly not very happy.
"Stop talking nonsense," You Congxi frowned, looked the child up and down from head to toe who had been sitting on the stone stool with his eyes closed, mouth pursed, and ears covered, and asked rather rudely, "Did You Yuanming go bankrupt and kick you out? Or were you kidnapped by human traffickers and then abandoned halfway?"
Upon hearing this, Shen Yue moved closer to You Congxi, distancing himself from the sweet-talking child in front of him. It seemed that this was her half-sister. No matter what, he would always stand by You Congxi's side.
You Youyi wasn't good at studying, but she was very perceptive to gossip. She immediately realized that this good-looking guy had designs on her sister—"dating" was a term coined in their class to describe someone wanting to kiss or add another person's "friends"—trendy elementary school students like to use "dating," while WeChat was something only older people used.
She glanced at her sister again...
"Are you mute?" You Congxi was very dissatisfied with her feigning deafness and muteness.
“Sister, the guy next to you is glaring at me,” You Youyi said.
"Hey." Shen Yue raised an eyebrow and chuckled. Wasn't he just calling him brother-in-law?
You Congxi is dissatisfied with this child, so what's the problem?
"Sister, don't pinch me! I was wrong!" You Youyi jumped down from the stone block, tilting her head and begging for mercy as her sister exerted force.
"That man, which man?" You Congxi released her grip and gently scolded, "Call him brother."
"Oh! I know!" You Youyi covered her ears and started pouting again. She turned to look at the man, pretending to glare at him casually, but her mouth remained obedient as she said, "Hello, brother!"
"Hello." Shen Yue smiled and extended his hand.
You Youyi really wanted to slap that hand away, but she glanced at her sister's calm yet threatening eyes and was afraid that she would be the one to be slapped away in the end, so she obediently reached out and shook hands with Shen Yue.
...It seems this kid has won over his sister's heart.
You Youyi thought for a moment, then secretly glared at the male fox spirit.
The male fox spirit noticed her gaze and returned her a snarling, grimacing face, utterly provocative!
You Congxi went to answer a phone call, and when he came back, he lightly patted You Youyi on the back of the head. He didn't use much force, but it still made her stumble and almost fall face-first to the ground.
"Run away from home?" You Congxi asked, hands in his pockets, looking down at him.
"Run away from home?" Shen Yue repeated softly from behind, taking advantage of the situation.
You Congxi glanced at him, and Shen Yue immediately raised his hand and made a zipping motion over his mouth.
Since You Congxi had finally taken the initiative to come to the amusement park for a date, he absolutely couldn't let her have any bad memories of this date.
Thinking back to that sudden hug downstairs just now...
"I did nothing wrong!" You Youyi shouted, her neck stiff, showing none of the meekness she had displayed earlier, like a mouse before a cat.
You Congxi looked at her without saying anything.
Shen Yue was worried for the child.
The child still stubbornly refused to move, his eyes wide open, like a furious little calf.
A few seconds later, she quickly raised her hand and wiped her eyes with her sleeve, but still stubbornly glared at You Congxi, as if whoever glared the longest would win.
Shen Yue looked at the child's red nose and eyes and felt a little sorry for him.
He hesitated whether to offer some advice, when he heard the girl sigh. Her voice was very soft, like a feather, and he wouldn't have heard it if he hadn't been standing so close.
"Let me see my hands." You Congxi's tone softened a bit, at least it wasn't as icy as before.
At first, You Youyi stubbornly kept it in her pocket and refused to take it out. Later, You Congxi bought her a cotton candy, and she awkwardly stretched her hand out in front of You Congxi while munching on the cotton candy.
"Who hit it?" You Congxi grabbed the small, thin arm and glanced at the deep red and purple beams above, her eyebrows furrowing involuntarily.
"Mom," You Youyi mumbled, her face buried in the huge little rabbit marshmallow.
"The medicine is here—" The boy ran over from not far away and handed the medicine to You Congxi without even panting.
There was a 24-hour pharmacy nearby, and Shen Yue went to buy ointment without waiting for You Congxi's signal.
After eating the cotton candy and taking the medicine, You Youyi rolled down her sleeves, put on her coat, and lowered her head. Before her sister could say anything, she took it upon herself to decide, her voice muffled: "Sister, take me home."
There was no movement above.
You Youyi didn't dare to look up, her eyes fixed on her toes. A few more children's laughter came from beside her. She stepped on a small pebble on the ground and rubbed it gently. "I will never run away from home again, sister. I don't want to eat cotton candy or go to the amusement park at all. I will do my test paper properly when I get home."
A low chuckle came from above.
You Youyi looked up in surprise, but before she could see who it was, she felt her hair being ruffled. All she could see was that rather sturdy-looking arm.
The arm disappeared, revealing the face of its owner.
The annoying man gave her a nasty smile and said, "Your sister went out, in a hurry to get home?"
Her sister went out??
You Youyi's heart sank. Her sister had driven her away in anger, leaving her alone here, and now she was being dumped on this annoying man?!
"Hey, hey, hey," Shen Yue watched as the little girl in front of him suddenly started crying. The smug smile on his face instantly vanished. He frantically rummaged through his pocket for tissues and tried to call You Congxi, acting as if the person in front of him wasn't a rebellious child who had run away from home, but a ticking time bomb that could explode if she cried. "Don't cry, what's wrong? I was just kidding, your sister..."
"Why are you crying?" You Congxi's voice came from not far away.
Yu Youyi looked over, sobbing, and her sister walked over unhurriedly, hands in her pockets, looking very dashing.
"What else do you want to eat?" You Congxi clicked her tongue impatiently, pulled her hand away, wiped her tears haphazardly with the back of her hand, and then rubbed it on her clothes in disgust.
"Sister... I will never, never again... I will definitely, definitely study hard... Don't, don't leave me, sob..." You Youyi cried like a boiling kettle. While crying, she subconsciously used her uninjured hand to tightly grasp the hem of You Congxi's clothes, as if grabbing the last piece of driftwood in a flood.
You Congxi looked at her, then glanced down at the small, clenched hand that had turned white, and said nothing.
After a long pause, she sighed almost imperceptibly. Instead of brushing the hand away, she took the tissue Shen Yue offered and used it to wipe away her tears, saying softly, "I understand."
She straightened up, took out three tickets from her pocket and waved them: "Want to go to the amusement park?"
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