Chapter 26 Delinquent Brother, You're Back.
After Cheng Mingdu left, it was as if he took away the last bit of warmth from Chengdu at the end of the year, and the temperature plummeted.
When Ye Yuying went out to the kitchen in the middle of the night, she always had to wrap herself in a down jacket. Sometimes she would suddenly find that the stone path in the yard was covered with frost, with filamentous ice crystals arranged randomly, as if they were growing out of the cracks.
She started making rice balls herself, following the recipe Cheng Mingdu had left her before he left.
The recipe is very simple: shape rice into balls, wrap some shredded pork floss, egg crepe or pickled vegetables inside, shape them into triangles, and wrap them casually with a piece of seaweed.
The combinations inside can be freely arranged according to the available materials, allowing you to create almost any different dish in a short period of time.
To ensure the seaweed remains crisp when eaten, it is usually wrapped in plastic packaging during preparation. The packaging is then torn open before eating to maintain the crispness at its best.
She even carefully recalled the shape that Cheng Mingdu had once held in his hand, and tried her best to replicate it in terms of size and weight.
No matter what she did or how she tried, she always felt that the taste was a little off, or that the stickiness of the rice was very different.
She could only replicate the rice ball's body, but could not imbue it with a soul.
She sat in the dim kitchen light, her back slightly stiff, with a row of neat little rice balls on the table.
The cold wind was rattling against the windows outside. Inside, it was quiet, with only the faint sounds of the wind, breathing, and the ticking of the clock.
She picked up a rice ball, took a bite, and the warm rice grains burst on her tongue, filling her stomach but leaving her feeling empty inside.
She recalled how, when she was a child, some family members would occasionally come to visit during the Lunar New Year. Some children of similar age would stay together for about half a month, and after the Lantern Festival, everyone, adults and children alike, would go their separate ways.
She has lived with her maternal grandmother for a long time and is considered an "original inhabitant." After the New Year, she can only see her maternal grandmother when she wakes up every day.
As she watched the steaming buns coming out of the pot in the kitchen, all the noise and bustle faded from her ears.
Ye Yuying took another bite of her rice ball, feeling that Cheng Mingdu was hard to compare with her childhood playmates. They weren't playmates at all, and they rarely even communicated.
But ultimately, she couldn't offer a more reasonable explanation for this feeling.
Ye Yuying looked up at the window. The night was very dark, and the bare tree trunks were wet and reflected the moonlight.
She lowered her head and took another bite; the rice grains were slightly cold, like ice entering her throat.
At that moment, she felt more lonely and indifferent than ever before.
It's as if the world has quietly forgotten it in some corner, and even its sound has evaporated.
But at that moment, she mistakenly thought that this was the ultimate loneliness in life. Little did she know that many years later, when she was studying alone in Germany, she would return to her apartment late at night from the laboratory, take out the rice balls she had prepared the night before from the refrigerator, and sit alone at the narrow table, numbly biting them.
At that moment, tears welled up in her eyes, and she kept wiping them away with her sleeve, clutching the half-eaten rice ball, sobbing uncontrollably in loneliness.
Thirteen-year-old Ye Yuying still finished the rice ball in her hand, bite by bite.
Regardless, she gritted her teeth and silently finished every single grain of rice.
She wanted to grit her teeth and endure every late night, every moment when no one cared, earnestly struggling to live in her confusion.
At that time, she didn't know when Ye Yuying would be pulled out of the broken night.
*
At school, the conflict between Ye Yuying and Ninth Sister just faded away. No one would suddenly appear on the way home from school, bully her, and then leave.
An invisible antagonism has formed between Ge Jie and Ye Yuying. After the confrontation at the school gate last time, Ge Jie's "dominant position" in the class has begun to weaken.
The reason is simple: they had already formed an unwritten hierarchy in the school.
Who has a powerful family background, who gets good grades, who can persuade others, and who can navigate the teacher's situation with ease—all these factors determine who is superior and who is inferior.
As a transfer student from the countryside, Ye Yuying obviously had nothing.
At first, Ge Jie's attitude towards her was nothing more than condescending pity and contempt.
Until that day.
Ye Yuying cut her long hair and walked straight through the classroom in full view of everyone, without the slightest fear.
Ye Yuying beat up Ninth Sister outside of school until she admitted defeat, and was still able to return to school in full condition.
When Ye Yuying was surrounded and pursued, Cheng Mingdu appeared...
Everything was resolved quietly, and no one dared to mention it again, as if it had never happened.
Those in the class who had previously followed Ge Jie's lead began to secretly cast complicated glances at Ye Yuying.
Some people think Ye Yuying is not to be trifled with, some think she has powerful backers, and some even think she is "cooler" than Ge Jie.
Even if others didn't say it, and even if Ge Jie was still surrounded by people on the surface, undercurrents were already surging beneath the calm surface.
Occasionally, when Ye Yuying glanced to the side, she would catch a glimpse of Ge Jie's cautious, gloomy gaze.
Just when everyone was envious of her having a "brother" to back her up, rumors spread like wildfire in the class, saying that Ye Yuying's mother had risen to power by being a caregiver, taking meticulous care of Mr. Cheng during his illness, and using some brothel tricks to successfully climb the social ladder.
At first, Ye Yuying didn't care.
She's gotten used to gossip.
When she was a child in the primary school in her hometown, people talked about her behind her back, calling her "the child of a robber" and "a burden to her grandmother," but she just ignored them.
But slowly, she began to sense something was wrong.
For example, when the teacher calls out names to criticize discipline, she always calls out her name specifically;
For example, a girl in the class bumped into her under the guise of playing around, and then said innocently, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to."
For example, a classmate who usually gets along well with you might subtly move their chair a few centimeters away after overhearing whispers around them.
What hurt her most was a conversation she overheard in the restroom—
"What's so enviable about knowing Cheng Mingdu? Do you think the Cheng family really treats her like a treasure? If they treated her like a treasure, would she have ended up attending this lousy school?"
"That kind of person, with such poor grades, why bother studying? They should just find a sugar daddy."
"Haha, she's just like her mother. Who knows which man she'll seduce in the future? These things... always have roots."
The sound wasn't loud, but it penetrated the eardrums clearly.
In that instant, the cold wind seemed to pry open every crevice of Ye Yuying's bones.
She stood frozen in the restroom stall, too afraid to move, until the footsteps faded into the distance, then she walked out blankly, her face expressionless.
That's how terrifying the power of rumors can be.
Like an invisible hand, it quietly pushed her into a more isolated position, staining every struggle, effort, and purity she had.
From then on, she became even more taciturn.
The worst part is that she didn't even have a chance to defend herself.
Because in other people's eyes, the act of making excuses is evidence of a guilty conscience.
She had thought countless times about emailing Cheng Mingdu, but she never knew what to say.
The most difficult problems to solve are the least concrete; even describing them is difficult, let alone solving them.
Although she did not experience actual physical violence, the invisible violence in the classroom was far more terrifying than physical pain.
She had no friends; she was completely isolated.
She finally realized that in this place, silence would not save her a way out.
Being weak, isolated, and silent only emboldens people to unleash all their malice upon her.
—So, Ye Yuying began to change.
Her hair was cut even shorter, no longer covering her face, but neatly revealing her pale neck.
The school uniform jacket was no longer buttoned up, but casually draped over the shoulders, with the zipper half open, revealing a simple, rough white T-shirt underneath.
Instead of sitting properly before the bell rings, she walks into the classroom a beat late, dragging her chair with a loud thud.
When she picked up the pen, her knuckles protruded slightly, as if she were suppressing a lot of emotions between her bones, ready to explode at any moment.
Even the way they walk has changed.
Ye Yuying suppressed all her habits that easily revealed her weaknesses—
Discard bowing your head, avoiding eye contact, and excessively polite apologies.
Instead, there is a coldness that carries a sense of alienation and aggression.
When someone chuckled behind her back, she glanced up and looked over, her gaze indifferent, like a knife slicing through the air.
If someone deliberately bumps into her, she stands still, only needing to take a few steps forward and stare at the other person expressionlessly—don't worry, the other person will always back down first.
When someone speaks ill of her in the bathroom, she kicks the door open, slamming it against the wall with a loud bang. She slowly washes her hands, the water splashing from her fingertips as cold as blades, carrying a silent yet chilling threat.
Those gossipy people didn't dare utter a sound in front of her.
—She became the kind of troublesome girl that everyone talked about.
Ge Jie became increasingly restrained, her eyes filled with resentment, yet she had to admit it—
In this silent tug-of-war, she was subtly losing ground.
Ironically, when Ye Yuying returned to the attic alone, shed her disguise, and faced her true self, she was so desolate.
Only Ye Yuying herself knew that she wasn't really like that.
She just knew all too well that in this world, no one would stop being malicious for a docile and obedient girl.
So she chose to become someone not to be trifled with first.
Even if this "not to be trifled with" attitude is just a bluff, it's enough to protect her.
But after becoming a "bad girl," she dared not write emails to Cheng Mingdu anymore. She felt that she had become unrecognizable and could no longer be as open and honest as before.
*
Ye Yuying transformed herself during the entire winter in Chengdu, and before she knew it, spring had arrived.
Back then, it was fashionable at school to dye your hair all sorts of flamboyant colors, as if the more eye-catching the hair color, the more it represented a rebellious attitude.
She even considered whether she should reinforce her "bad" image.
She thought for a moment, then went into the hair salon and, in full view of everyone, bleached her hair to a very light silver-white, without adding any more color.
Her bleached hair clung to her ears, making her face appear cold and stubborn, her brows and eyes sharp as a blade hidden beneath the melting ice.
When I came out of the hair salon, the evening breeze blew through my newly bleached hair, and my scalp was still a little numb from the chemicals.
She stood in front of the convenience store at the intersection, and suddenly, as if possessed, pulled a pack of cigarettes from her coat pocket—cheap ones she had bought a few days earlier at the grocery store at the alley entrance.
She imitated a character in a movie, flicking out a cigarette and pretending to skillfully put it in her mouth.
Then he rummaged through the inside pocket of his coat, finally managing to pull out a lighter. His fingers stiffly flicked the flame, which trembled weakly.
Just as she bent down to bring the fire to the stove—
A long, clean hand reached out from the side without warning and steadily took the cigarette from her mouth.
The movements were so swift, as if they had cut the loose threads of all her pretense.
Ye Yuying was taken aback and subconsciously looked up.
In the evening breeze, Cheng Mingdu wore a light gray trench coat with the collar slightly open. His pale fingers twirled an unlit cigarette before casually tossing it into the nearby trash can.
His movements were casual, yet dazzlingly precise.
Throughout the entire process, his gaze never wavered; from beginning to end, he stared straight at her, dissecting her like a scalpel.
Her serene eyes were like a mirror.
In those mirror-like, calm eyes, she saw the demon within herself.
— Bleached hair, loose school uniform, feigning composure while smoking, clumsily imitating an adult, but in reality, his soul is incredibly fragile.
Cheng Mingdu looked at her before slowly speaking, "Ye Yuying, is this the person you want to become?"
The sound was not loud, but it was incredibly clear and sharp.
He lowered his eyes slightly, a barely perceptible irony curving his lips, which also resembled a sigh of extreme depth.
Ye Yuying stood there, all her pretense and coldness collapsing in that instant.
The evening breeze carried the lingering, pungent smell of the medicine, making her ears ache slightly.
Her short, silvery-white hair clung to her pale cheeks, revealing the slender, delicate lines of her neck.
But she couldn't care about anything else.
She looked at the person in front of her—
Although only a season of spring chill had passed, it was as if he had crossed a world from her life, standing before her again with a calmer and more serene aura.
A burning sensation welled up in her eyes, and she instinctively bit her teeth, trying to suppress the emotions surging within her.
But the next second, she couldn't help herself.
When that voice came out, it was broken and trembling uncontrollably, filled with the excitement and panic of regaining everything that had been lost.
She called out softly, yet with an incredibly clear and childlike voice:
"Brother, you're back."
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Author's Note: 50 red envelopes [Cat emoji]
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