Thirst-quenching plum drink
Jiang Yichun was rushing towards the library.
The sounds of heartbeats and breathing mingled in her ears, mixed with the whooshing of the wind.
Her heart was pounding in her chest.
The small mole on the back of He Yinxin's neck darted around in front of her eyes.
His smiling face, and those clear eyes, still seemed to be watching her.
She touched her lips again.
My own lips are so soft, if...
"What did I just say?!" Jiang Yichun shouted as she ran, attracting the attention of several students carrying packages.
He even called He Yinxin "Darling," played a customer service game, and stuffed his "five-star review" sticky note into his pencil case to "treasure."
They even said it was cute.
cute……
A lovely smiling face, a lovely self, a lovely... woman.
These two simple words triggered a key nerve in her brain, shattering all the pink bubbles that had been forming.
Jiang Yichun felt that her heart was filled with a sweet candy jar, but the candy was gradually spoiling and turning moldy over time.
"Cute or not! It's so annoying!"
Jiang Yichun covered his ears, but instead of He Yinxin's deep and gentle voice, he heard a noisy argument.
The sound of a woman and a man arguing.
"Jiang Zhiche! Are you trying to get yourself killed? Why aren't you saying anything? I'd rather go find a captain of a deep-sea fishing vessel than live with you!"
"Hu Fei, what should I say? You're out drinking and smoking every day, doing those disreputable jobs. What should I say? Praise you?"
"What do you mean by 'indecent'? And what about you? What did you say to that woman?"
"Her? I have nothing to do with her. I just think she's cute."
"Cute? Ha, Jiang Zhiche, you'll say anything to mess things up, right?"
"Mom and Dad, what are you talking about?"
Jiang Yichun will never forget that day, the man's room full of oil paint, his mother's messy hair, and himself after school preparing a painting representing spring, ready to go home and show it off to his parents.
Then she heard that sentence.
"Yes, Hu Fei, I don't get love from you, I don't feel love, do you understand? You don't love me at all! It's normal for me to chat with other women!"
Those eyes happened to catch Jiang Yichun returning home, and the man frowned.
"Jiang Yichun, your name is also proof of my pain!"
"The river flows away quickly, spring is over, just like our love!"
"Jiang Yichun! You stop right there!"
The shrill voice dragged Jiang Yichun out of the little house from his childhood.
She held back the tears welling up in her eyes and looked in the direction of the cold wind.
A girl with pigtails and wearing a sweater with a bow is standing in the middle of the road.
Her eyes were also filled with tears, and a few strands of hair clung to her face, making her look somewhat comical.
Jiang Yichun immediately held back the tears welling up in her eyes and said with a long face, "Tsk, what now? Qiao Maizi, you're not really going to say I copied your PPT, are you?"
"Speak quickly if you have something to say, or I'll have to ask you for the fees for becoming a kindergarten teacher."
Qiao Maizi didn't say anything, but walked towards her step by step.
Jiang Yichun frowned, took a few steps back with his backpack on, and said, "Qiao Maizi, calm down. This is a university campus. Don't do anything rash!"
"We're all professionals, after all. If a fight breaks out..."
Qiao Maizi didn't say anything, but bent down and bowed deeply to her.
"sorry."
Jiang Yichun stood frozen in place, with only the wind sweeping past the camphor tree leaves.
Her already confused mind became even more chaotic.
Qiao Maizi, you apologized to me?
Why?
Could it be...?
"I'm sorry, I've always said I wanted to compete fairly with you, but I never expected you to resort to such disgusting methods."
Her two pigtails hung low, and her body trembled incessantly.
"I didn't expect that I was the one who did all the group work, because those other people were either slacking off or distracting others. But I didn't expect that they would even copy other people's PPTs, which is the simplest thing."
"I am truly sorry for the inconvenience I have caused you and Zhang Xingxing, and for making you the target of Professor Lin's questioning."
"I will accept this score entirely."
Her voice was punctuated by soft sobs.
Another fuse in Jiang Yichun's mind went off again.
What a mess this morning has been!
Even though her nerves were about to snap, she still managed a smile: "It's okay, I know."
"We've always competed fairly, haven't we?"
Jiang Yichun strode forward, his hand trembling as he reached out, but a smile remained on his face.
"I told you you weren't that kind of person. Well, you may have been a bit harsh with your words and did some rather childish things."
"But I won't tell the teacher anything else about the plagiarism. Don't expect me to plead for it."
"Tch, who needs your pleading? I, Qiao Maizi, am a man of my word."
With tears in her eyes, Qiao Maizi still tilted her chin up and tightly grasped Jiang Yichun's outstretched hand.
"Jiang Yichun, you wait, I... I will still..."
"You'll surpass me, won't you?" Jiang Yichun's jumbled thoughts gradually dissipated the moment she grasped Qiao Maizi's hand, and she tilted her head and smiled.
Qiao Maizi avoided her gaze and snorted softly, "Yeah, I will surpass you. I want to be number one in my major."
"It's childish, but I'm going to be better than you!"
Jiang Yichun sighed: "Qiao Maizi, are you going to A University too?"
"No, I just want to prove to you that I'm no worse than you!" Qiao Maizi emphasized.
Looking into Qiao Maizi's bloodshot eyes, Jiang Yichun fell into his own reflection.
"I'm no worse than you."
"I want to prove myself."
The reflection in the mirror said this.
"That's why I'm going to study at University A. I'll prove to each and every one of you that I'm not a fool! I don't need to go home and get married!"
The image of myself in the mirror overlapped with that of the girl in front of me.
She looked at Qiao Maizi and seemed to see her own stubborn self in her eyes.
She laughed at her for being naive, and her efforts were simply to surpass herself.
I was just trying to prove myself to certain people, so I desperately tried to get into A University.
Was my decision to aim for A University due to such a naive reason?
Why do I...?
Jiang Yichun was caught in a vortex of self-constructed doubt, watching his reflection in the mirror gradually blur.
"Jiang Yichun, can you please stop looking at me?" Qiao Maizi rolled her eyes and kicked Jiang Yichun out of his fantasy of the mirror image. "I know I'm pretty, but you don't have to stare at me for so long, do you?"
Jiang Yichun snapped out of his daze and looked at her tear-stained makeup.
"puff."
Jiang Yichun looked at the lipstick that had spilled onto her lips and the foundation that had mixed together, and laughed out loud: "Because your makeup... is quite unique."
"Jiang Yichun, you'd better forget what I look like now, or I'll go to your dorm tonight and climb into your bed."
"Then I'll draw a turtle on your face with eyeliner!" Qiao Maizi pulled out a tissue, wiping her snot and tears while speaking with a smile.
Jiang Yichun pursed his lips and shrugged: "You really are going to be childish to the end, Qiao?"
"What kind of plot is 'drawing a turtle' from an old-fashioned romance novel?"
"Don't worry, I'll definitely lock the dorm room door tonight and you won't have a chance to sneak in."
The two met eyes and smiled at each other.
"Jiang Yichun, you seem to really enjoy eating. Perfect timing, I'm going to the library too. Let's go to the cafeteria together after I finish studying."
"I'm treating you as an apology."
Qiao Maizi stood in the middle of the road, hands on her hips, grinning.
The spring sunshine streamed down from behind her, lengthening her shadow.
Jiang Yichun sighed: "I'm sorry, Qiao, I really have something to do today... Wait a minute, don't lose your temper."
Qiao Maizi opened her mouth, then formed an "o" shape: "Jiang Yichun, you're not going on a date with that graduate student, are you?"
“Jiang Yichun, do you know that I was sitting diagonally behind you? I was observing him the whole time you went up to speak.”
"His lips were always turned up in a big smile, and while you were speaking up there, he was taking notes down there."
"And he deliberately didn't wear his glasses today..."
Jiang Yichun's face flushed again. She waved her hand and said, "What? No, no, we're really just good friends."
"He wasn't wearing his glasses today. He explained to me that he forgot to bring them."
"Huh? Jiang Yichun, you have such a smart brain! How could someone who does everything so properly forget to wear his glasses?" Qiao Maizi laughed and took a few steps toward Jiang Yichun. "I think it's clearly a peacock spreading its tail feathers—his heart is fluttering with spring fever."
"And it's your heart that's stirring with spring!"
She raised her hand and gently poked Jiang Yichun's shoulder.
Jiang Yichun stood there, stunned, feeling as if her face was burning hot.
She quickly waved her hand and took a few steps back: "What? Don't ship us like that. We're just friends now."
"Also, I'm not going to see Lao He or He Yinxin later; I have my own things to do. We're not like badminton balls and rackets, which have to be tied together all the time."
"Oh, you're just friends now, but what about the future? Maybe we'll end up being sold as a bundled deal?" Qiao Maizi said with a mischievous grin, rummaging in her pocket. "Alright, alright, I'll give my gift in advance."
She pulled a large box of plum juice tea bags from the pocket of her skirt.
"I just picked it up at the courier station. I was planning to drink it myself, but I made such a big mistake today, so I'll use this to atone for it."
"These were sun-dried by my aunt herself, and the plums were also grown by her family. My aunt is very good at making sour plum drink, and her tea bags have a long shelf life."
"You can brew a cup and drink it on a hot summer day; it's sweet and sour and refreshing."
Although Jiang Yichun's mind was filled with her joking "giving money as a gift," his eyes were fixed on the dress she was wearing: "Where did you buy this dress? Why does this pocket look like Doraemon's magic pocket?"
"Jiang Yichun! What are you focusing on?!" Qiao Maizi said angrily, raising her hand to slap her and make her experience "classmate friendship".
The two then playfully wrestled along the campus path until they reached the library entrance.
The playful talk about "giving money as a gift" had long since vanished into thin air amidst the laughter and chatter of the two.
Jiang Yichun stood at the library entrance, stroked his chin, and called out to Qiao Maizi, "Since we're going to eat, how about Friday noon? I'm too busy this week, that's the only time I'm free."
"Aren't you from around here? You have to go home this weekend, right?"
Qiao Maizi stroked her chin and nodded in agreement.
When Friday finally arrived, Jiang Yichun was gazing at the plum juice brewed from tea bags.
It's a light, deep red color with a hint of sourness mixed with a subtle sweetness.
She picked up the teacup and took a big gulp.
The tartness of plums, the sweetness of rock sugar, and the delicate fragrance of roses mingled at the tip of her nose.
"So, isn't my aunt quite skilled?" Qiao Maizi sat down in front of her, holding a steaming bowl of soup noodles.
Jiang Yichun smiled and nodded, about to reply, when his gaze met that of a boy buying food nearby.
He wore glasses and a low-cut sweater, and his well-defined knuckles held his student ID card between his fingers.
He was chatting casually with the boy next to him when he picked up a bowl of steaming bibimbap and walked towards her.
"Old Jia, your mentor..." He Yinxin was engrossed in her conversation when she turned her head and met Jiang Yichun's gaze.
His hand holding the bibimbap in the stone pot tensed instantly.
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