Chapter 67 (First Update)
Luo Yan finished class at eight o'clock in the evening.
She couldn't understand some parts of the lecture, and couldn't even get to the front of the stage to ask questions, so she had to hold her book and wait.
While waiting, she looked around and spotted Zhou Xiuhe loitering in the corridor.
Their eyes met, then silently looked away.
This feeling of "sneaking around" made Luo Yan's heart race, as if all the teachers and classmates around her were watching her. She quickly read a couple of pages of her book to calm herself down while waiting.
When it was her turn, she was the only one left in the classroom.
To avoid suspicion, the male teacher left as soon as he finished explaining the problem, his back view showing a hurried and energetic manner.
Zhou Xiuhe suddenly appeared from somewhere: "I didn't scare you this time, did I?"
Luo Yan knew he hadn't returned to the dormitory yet, and said, "No."
His eyes darted nervously left and right.
At this time, the teachers in the Academic Affairs Office will definitely come to patrol with flashlights.
Zhou Xiuhe knew this too, and said, "I'll just follow behind you, otherwise it will be too late."
Luo Yan glanced at the time, thinking that she had indeed wasted a lot of time today. She quickly closed the doors, windows and lights, slung her backpack over her shoulder and headed outside.
The footsteps of two people echoed each other in the empty corridor, but when they turned around, they could only see blurry shadows.
If she hadn't known, Luo Yan would have run away in terror, but now that she knew who it was, she walked away while playing with her hair, her fingers twirling around.
She walked all the way to the bike shed, took out her keys, and unlocked the bike.
Zhou Xiuhe approached and said, "I'll take you to the alley entrance."
Luo Yan: "No need, the dorm rooms will be locked soon."
Zhou Xiuhe had clearly planned this all along: "But I wanted to give you a ride, so I specifically parked the car here."
He even tried to play the victim. Luo Yan glanced at her watch and said, "Fine, let's ride faster."
She was riding very fast, deliberately keeping a distance, but suddenly slowed down after turning a corner.
Zhou Xiuhe suddenly caught up with her and asked, "Do you want to see a play on Sunday?"
The hottest play in the whole city right now is that one, Luo Yan: "It must be hard to buy tickets, right?"
Zhou Xiuhe: "I only dared to ask because I had a ticket."
Luo Yan: "What time? It's my mom's birthday, I have to leave early."
Zhou Xiuhe: "The event will end at four o'clock. We'll meet again at the city library in the morning."
"Okay," Luo Yan said, "You can go back now. This area is already part of our street."
Those elderly people wearing red armbands couldn't sleep day or night, and they were incredibly enthusiastic about going around.
Zhou Xiuhe grunted in response, and only left after seeing her turn into the alley.
He was in a hurry to get back to his dormitory and didn't see Luo Yan quietly peek out again.
Who's doing this like a thief so late at night?
An elderly woman in the alley called out, "What are you doing over there!"
Startled, Luo Yan trembled and patted her chest, saying, "Aunt Chen, it's me."
"Oh dear," Aunt Chen said, sweeping her flashlight across the room, "who is this? Why are you so late today?"
Luo Yan: "I did some homework at school."
Aunt Chen: "It's so late. If she has homework, she should stay home and do it. It's not safe for a young girl like her."
Luo Yan replied crisply, "Okay, thank you. I'm going home now."
There were only a few lights in the alley, so Aunt Chen used a flashlight to help her light it.
That dim light didn't really do much good, but it did make people feel warm inside.
Luo Yan entered the house and first told her parents about it.
Liu Yinfeng retorted playfully, "Your dad almost went to pick you up from school."
Luo Yan hung up her scarf: "Someone brought me back."
Who else could it be? Liu Yinfeng: "That's good. By the way, there's a letter on your desk."
She was a thrifty person and said, "Let's talk face to face, it's too much money."
Luo Yan was a little embarrassed: "I already said it was his own idea to write it."
This young man doesn't seem like someone who knows how to manage a household. Fortunately, college graduates always get good jobs.
Liu Yinfeng smiled but didn't say anything, then muttered, "Why isn't your brother back yet?"
Luo Yan: "He's at the car dealership, right? He said yesterday he was going to deliver the chain."
Liu Yinfeng: "Working two jobs, I don't think I can handle it sooner or later."
She didn't approve of her son working at the car dealership. Parents are always a bit conservative, hoping he would have a regular job, but how can you control a child when he grows up?
Luo Yan knew this too, and said, "It's still better than visiting other people's homes everywhere."
Visiting neighbors is not wrong, but Liu Yinfeng always felt that her son's friends were a mixed bag. He hung out with all sorts of people in the alley, from fighters to card players, and they called each other brothers all the time.
Compared to that, she said, "That's true, at most we'll just lose some money."
Hearing this, Luo Yan's eyes lit up: "Mom, do we have a lot of money?"
Liu Yinfeng: "How many do you not know?"
The couple believed that the future belonged to their children, and since one never knows what might happen in life, they always made sure to explain their family's assets clearly.
Luo Yan said regretfully, "I thought we had small yellow croakers at home too."
A couple of days ago, there was some big news in the alley. It was said that Old Zhang's family in No. 17 courtyard had two small yellow croakers that had been stored for decades, and suddenly they became rich.
Liu Yinfeng: "Mom only has a pair of silver bracelets, which will be your dowry later."
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, gold was collected and monopolized by the People's Bank of China. Due to resource scarcity, for decades, it was only allowed to sell but not to buy, let alone acquire gold jewelry.
"No need, no need," Luo Yan winked, "My dad bought it for you."
Luo Xinmin replied, "Dad will buy it for you in the future too."
Luo Yan said happily, "I've made a little more money."
She ate the peach shortbread as she returned to her room, reading Zhou Xiuhe's letter as she ate.
There were actually no more than a hundred words on it, since there didn't seem to be much else to do all day except for classes, but he still wanted to share it immediately, even though it was already late when he delivered it to Luo Yan.
However, there's a saying: "A gift of a goose feather from a thousand miles away is a small gift but carries great meaning." The weight of many things in this world cannot be easily measured.
Luo Yan valued the sentiment and wrote a reply after reading it, leaving large blank spaces on the page.
She thought for a moment and drew a flower in the corner, along with a poem she had recently come across and quite liked. The poem had nothing to do with love or romance, but she couldn't quite remember what she was writing, so she went to the living room to find the newspaper.
When Luo Hong got home, he saw his sister rummaging around and said, "Why are you hungry again? You eat every day."
Luo Yan: "I'm looking for spiritual nourishment."
Okay, go for it with your spirit.
Luo Hong: "Then I'll eat this roast chicken myself."
Luo Yancai noticed that he had something in his hand and said solicitously, "Please sit down, please sit down, I'll pour you some water."
Luo Hong sat down like an old man and asked casually, "How have things been between you and Xiao Zhou lately?"
Why are you asking this out of the blue?
Luo Yan: "It's great."
Luo Hong went to the car dealership after get off work today, not only to deliver a chain but also to subtly inquire about his childhood friend's thoughts.
Although he didn't dare to be too direct, he could tell from their years of friendship that the man hadn't given up yet.
But it's clear that Luo Hong can only pretend he doesn't know, since his sister already has a close male classmate.
He said, "Okay, let's eat."
"Whatever," Luo Yan said, "I feel like there's something strange about you."
Luo Hong sneered: "You don't have that kind of insight."
"Whoever is blind, Luo Yan glared at me with her big eyes: 'You little eyes, how dare you talk to me like that.'"
"What's the use of having big eyes?" Luo Hong said with a mysterious expression, tearing off a chicken leg.
Luo Yan ignored him, ate something, washed up and went back to her room. Then she remembered that she hadn't finished writing the letter, so she went out to look through the newspaper.
Seeing her going in and out, Luo Hong asked, "What are you doing?"
Luo Yan: "Do you have the newspaper from the day before yesterday?"
"Never mind, you don't even read the newspaper."
Luo Hong said calmly, "I don't look, but I know where it is."
Luo Yan: "Where?"
Luo Hong pointed to the stove: "I used it to light the fire."
Luo Yan said irritably, "You have so many newspapers at home, why don't you use them? You insist on using new ones."
Luo Hong: "What do you call new if it was the day before yesterday?"
Luo Yan put her hands on her hips and said, "If I say so, then it is so."
Luo Hong: "Keep shouting, and call out your parents too."
Her parents were already asleep. Luo Yan covered her mouth and glared at her brother, but no matter how hard she racked her brains, she couldn't remember the second half of the poem. So she simply wrote down this interlude and crawled into bed to sleep.
I was asleep when someone in the alley shouted, "Fire!"
Luo Yan thought she was dreaming. She opened her eyes and didn't even realize what was happening. After a moment of stunned silence, she grabbed her coat from the bedside, put it on, and hurriedly opened the door to her room.
Luo Hong is faster than his sister.
He stood at his doorstep looking out, but saw no sparks, and exchanged bewildered glances with his neighbors in the yard.
Liu Yinfeng had already put the bankbook in her pocket, but seeing her son still standing at the door, she asked, "Which house is on fire?"
Luo Hong: "I didn't find anything. I'll go out and take a look."
He looked around the alley but found nothing amiss. He greeted the other neighbors, "Brother Wu, do you see where the fire is?"
Angkor: "No, but I heard a sound."
Everyone discussed it animatedly, but couldn't come to a conclusion, and then went home.
Luo Hong locked the door and said, "There's nothing here. Go to sleep."
The fact that there was nothing there made it all the more baffling. Luo Yan couldn't sleep well after lying down again, and yawned repeatedly when she woke up in the morning.
Liu Yinfeng cursed, "Why aren't you sleeping at night? What are you doing, causing trouble for people?"
Luo Yan guessed that someone was playing a prank and said, "They might come back tonight."
As it turned out, the people on the street caught the two boys who had committed crimes that night—Xiao Hua and Xiao Bing.
Luo Yan only found out about this early in the morning and teased, "Ten years before those two, it was my brother and Zhou Weifang."
Luo Hong denied it: "We didn't make such a fuss."
Luo Yan clicked her tongue and shook her head: "It's not much better."
Luo Hong thought that his childhood friend's refusal to give up would probably not lead to a good outcome. After thinking it over, he stopped at the car dealership to chat with him and brought up the matter of the two children.
Zhou Weifang was eating breakfast and thought he was just there to share some news from the alley, so he said, "He's definitely going to get a good beating."
Luo Hong: "Absolutely. Even my sister, who loves children so much, says they need to be properly educated."
Then, casually, she said, "Yanyan said we were both annoying when we were little, is that true?"
Zhou Weifang had a headache: "Did she use the phrase 'annoying'?"
Luo Hong was quite conflicted, but ultimately decided to cut to the chase and added fuel to the fire, saying, "More or less."
I don't know when this impression will ever be changed.
Zhou Weifang felt that the road ahead was long: "A person really shouldn't do a single bad thing in their entire life."
Who told him to sigh like that? Luo Hong wanted to shake his shoulders and say: Don't bother trying, Yan Yan will never like you.
He swallowed back the thousand words that were on the tip of his tongue, and said weakly, "I'm going to work."
This was such an unlucky news first thing in the morning. Zhou Weifang didn't even like his childhood friend anymore. He waved his hand and said, "Let's go."
After everyone left, he muttered to himself, "No, I have to do a few good deeds."
-----------------------
Author's note: One more chapter to go, currently typing urgently.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com