Chapter 64 You're hiding it from me, I'm hiding it from you. "You two have such a deep relationship..."
"Jiang Yueming! I don't know how to do this problem, can you teach me?" Tian Tian shouted at the top of her lungs.
Jiang Yueming leaned closer and pondered the problem with Tian Tian. He looked at the strange and unusual characters on the paper, and the kind of questions he used to struggle with were now in front of him...
He still can't.
"No way," Jiang Yueming thought to himself, "God, are you kidding me? I finished junior high school, solid geometry and parabolas are a piece of cake for me, how could I not know them?! Could he really be going to fail because of elementary school math?!"
"Brother, what are you thinking about? Look at the questions!" Sweetie poked his arm with her pencil, a little annoyed.
"Brother is watching, brother is watching." Jiang Yueming had been watching all along; he was just trying to find a solution.
To simply say he doesn't know? That's ridiculous! Does he not even know how to do elementary school math?
Calling Li Leshan?
No way, not only would it be embarrassing, but I'd also be laughed at by Tian Tian.
"Give me the pen and the workbook." Jiang Yueming went all out, squatted down, took the pencil from Tian Tian's hand, and buried himself in the work without saying a word, his posture fierce as if he were going to fight the problem to the death.
A faint smell of cooking oil wafted from the kitchen. Lin Cuiqin placed the sliced apples and pears into a plate printed with the double happiness symbol, and smilingly pushed it onto the small square table in front of Li Leshan.
"Have some fruit, Leshan," Lin Cuiqin said with a smile. "It's been so many days since you last came. Auntie has missed you terribly."
Li Leshan smiled with a rare hint of shyness. He took out a piece of paper he had prepared in advance from his pocket, folded it neatly, unfolded it, and wrote down his gratitude to Lin Cuiqin in neat handwriting. He wrote down everything he could think of, such as helping them pay for medical expenses and other things.
He said he found a summer job at the Zhonghua Market, the kind where you collect change, the monthly salary is 450, he paid her back all of the two months' salary, and will pay back the rest slowly later.
“Leshan…” Lin Cuiqin felt a little reluctant. He and Jiang Yueming were the same age, and in her eyes they were still children. “You can pay back the money when you grow up and can work.”
Li Leshan is very persistent, especially in this regard.
“Auntie, you’ve helped me a lot.” Li Leshan picked up his pen and continued writing.
Lin Cuiqin glanced at the note again and suddenly noticed something was wrong. She quickly said, "Those shoes? That was two years ago, how can you still remember them?!"
Lin Cuiqin was somewhat surprised; this child was truly too thoughtful and honest.
Li Leshan lowered his head and pursed his lips. He wrote that he hadn't really thanked anyone over the years.
“But you shouldn’t thank me for this,” Lin Cuiqin said, completely unaware of what Jiang Yueming had said that day, and even less aware that he had lied. “These shoes were bought by Yueming himself. Did you think I bought them? He ran out to buy them in the middle of the night, freezing cold. Didn’t he tell you?”
Li Leshan suddenly paused, his pen hovering in his hand for a long time. When he looked up again, his eyes were full of doubt.
That was... bought by Jiang Yueming?
Lin Cuiqin didn't notice his odd behavior and continued, "Anyway, Leshan isn't urgent. You can keep the money for your schooling, to buy some stationery and stuff. You can pay your aunt back after you start working. I won't run away, right?"
She even joked, "Even if I run away, Yueming won't, right? He likes you so much, how could he bear to run far away?"
Li Leshan ignored all advice. He was determined to pay it back, ideally by high school. If that wasn't possible, he would use his school money to pay it back first, and then save the rest slowly.
In short...
All those things Jiang Yueming said back then were lies. Why wouldn't he tell him that he bought the shoes? Why did he say it was his aunt? Did he want him to accept it without feeling guilty?
In an instant, past memories rushed to Li Leshan like a flowing river, crashing against his heart and knocking him to the shore. He looked at Jiang Yueming, who was not far away, helping Tian Tian with a math problem, and felt a sense of powerlessness and heaviness welling up in his heart.
The shoes, the three yuan and fifty cents, the practice questions given to him, and his grandmother's medical expenses... Li Leshan felt in a daze that he owed too much, as heavy as a mountain, so much that he didn't know how to pay it all off, so much that he didn't know how long it would take. It included not only money, but also favors.
How could he not repay it? How could he not repay it? Were all those acts of kindness given to him for nothing, without asking for anything in return?
Li Leshan felt a heavy weight in his heart, as if something was tugging at it.
What does he want, but what can I give him?
He walked home especially slowly on this part of the journey. He didn't let Jiang Yueming go any further. He didn't need to turn back. He knew that the person must still be standing under the dim streetlights, guarding the dark entrance of the tenement building.
Li Leshan tried his best to walk faster. He unconsciously straightened his back, but he still felt something pressing down on him, heavy on his shoulders, as if trying to press him into the dust under his feet.
...
"What? Li Leshan is going to work?" Jiang Yueming asked.
Lin Cuiqin was washing the dishes and chatting with him, "Yeah, then you won't have anyone to play with during the summer vacation."
Jiang Yueming clicked his tongue inwardly, not expecting that Li Leshan had actually taken his words to heart and put them into practice.
"Then, where does he work?" Jiang Yueming asked hurriedly.
“The Zhonghua Market,” Lin Cuiqin said, “what are you trying to do, kid? Others go to work, and you just sit there squatting on the side?”
Regardless of whether he was squatting, sitting, or lying down, Jiang Yueming gritted his teeth and resolutely chose to work over his two-month vacation.
“Then I’ll go too!” Jiang Yueming said without hesitation. “I’m entrusting Aunt Tiantian to your care. I have to go do my work.”
He was afraid Lin Cuiqin wouldn't agree. After all, in his aunt's eyes, he was still a child, and she didn't want him to do chores.
"You're going to cause trouble?" Lin Cuiqin was indeed a little unhappy. "Yueming, you finally finished your exams and should take a break. If you do this, your sister will think I've mistreated you."
“My mom wouldn’t think that way,” Jiang Yueming said. “Auntie, please let me go. I’m not going to have a blast, but I’ll probably have to keep the money for myself.”
He was a little embarrassed to say it. But he knew he had a use for his money.
“I didn’t even want it,” Lin Cuiqin relented, thinking it would be good for him to gain experience. She also had acquaintances in the Zhonghua Market who could help him out. “Do whatever you want. Keep the money for yourself, and don’t buy Tian Tian any food or toys. You’ve spoiled her.”
“No, I still have to buy it,” Jiang Yueming said.
Lin Cuiqin let Jiang Yueming do as he pleased. She couldn't control the child; let him do whatever he wanted. Besides, if he didn't work, he would just go swimming or somewhere else, so it was better for him to work.
Li Leshan works as a cashier at a supermarket in the Zhonghua Market and occasionally delivers water. He drives a tricycle with seven or eight bottles of water on it at a time, the most common bottled water, and transports them to another supermarket.
Jiang Yueming first inquired where Li Leshan was working, and then asked his aunt to use her connections to get him a job. He realized that these days, you can't get by without connections.
"I told Xiuli that you can go tomorrow. Even though we're acquaintances, you still have to do a good job, understand?" Lin Cuiqin hung up the phone.
"Yes, Auntie!" Jiang Yueming was very excited. She had never felt so excited about doing chores before.
Xiuli was 45 years old and looked kind and approachable. She was the owner of a supermarket. She was familiar with Lin Cuiqin and had naturally met Jiang Yueming quite a few times as well.
"You've grown so tall!" Sister Xiuli looked Jiang Yueming up and down and exclaimed, "You're so handsome, like a model."
Jiang Yueming's mind was elsewhere. She chuckled and said no, no, but her eyes were fixed on Li Leshan, who was working at the cashier in the distance. He was wearing a work uniform, a dark red vest, and looked so neat that Jiang Yueming's eyes were instantly glued to him. That focused profile held her attention for a moment.
"Sister, is the cashier job... tiring?" Jiang Yueming asked casually.
"Not too tired," Sister Xiuli followed his gaze and looked in that direction. "Although that boy can't speak, he's tall and handsome, and quite a few girls come to the supermarket to see him. Many young girls like to line up in his queue when they come to buy things."
Jiang Yueming's gaze remained fixed as she whispered, "Sister, sister, it might be inconvenient for him to communicate with you. If he needs anything from you or requires any help, please be understanding and tolerant, okay?"
"Xiao Jiang, is that your friend?" Sister Xiuli was a little surprised. "Don't worry, this job isn't tiring. Sometimes I just give him the address when he helps with things like transporting water. You two can keep each other company, which is great."
“There’s one more thing,” Jiang Yueming hesitated for a moment, then leaned closer and lowered her voice, “It’s about my salary. Could we split it in half with him? I’m willing to do it. It’s just that you give him half more each time and give me half less. Really! Just record it in the accounts as you normally would.”
Xiuli looked completely bewildered, as if she had heard a fairy tale. She wondered if the child had lost her mind; how could this be? She had never seen anything like it in all her years running a supermarket.
"Sister, please say yes, and don't tell my aunt. He's my friend, and I want to help him." Jiang Yueming's tone was somewhat pleading.
"The bond between you two... is truly deep." Sister Xiuli was still a little confused, but seeing Jiang Yueming's repeated emphasis, she didn't say anything more.
"Thank you, sister," Jiang Yueming said sincerely.
"And please don't tell him that I said it," Jiang Yueming added.
Xiuli was completely bewildered by him. She had never seen anyone do good deeds anonymously before. She assumed that Jiang Yueming was just too embarrassed to say it himself. Children are like that; they are too shy to ask their friends for help, so they came up with this roundabout way.
She was already confused by Jiang Yueming's words, and her own interpretation led her to believe that Jiang Yueming was embarrassed to ask directly. But how could she do a good deed without informing the person involved? Wouldn't that be a waste of time? Even if he was embarrassed, he shouldn't do it like that; it was real money.
After finishing the accounting that day, Sister Xiuli called Li Leshan to the small warehouse in the back, which was piled with cardboard boxes, and told him to pay him the same rate as a full-time employee, 700 yuan a month. Li Leshan was confused and could only keep bowing and thanking her.
"Oh, why are you thanking me?" Sister Xiuli's good intentions backfired. She didn't know the whole story, but the more she talked, the more she felt it was a good thing, and that the person involved should understand. "You should thank Xiao Jiang; he doesn't want the wages. He said he wanted to help you. That kid has a really good heart; I've known that since we were little. You should cherish this friend, you know? By the way, don't tell Xiao Jiang about this. He asked me to keep it from you. I thought, what's the point of hiding it? If you know, you can still thank him and remember his kindness..."
Li Leshan couldn't hear a single word that followed.
Li Leshan stood frozen in place, his hands and feet turning cold. His head was bowed, and he couldn't lift it. The stuffy air in the warehouse seemed to freeze instantly, and beads of sweat slid down his bangs, stinging his eyes.
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