Lemon Black Tea Flavor
Jiang Yanmu invited Ye Zi to see a newly released movie. Holding a bag of iced tea-flavored candies that Jiang Nan had given her that morning, she asked, "Want some candy?"
"Okay," he reached into the bag and casually grabbed a lemon-flavored soda.
The movie hadn't started yet, so I sat in the lobby drinking milk tea and waiting. A radio drama was playing on my phone; I wasn't wearing headphones, so I turned the speaker on a bit, thankfully the content hadn't reached any intimate scenes yet.
"We've arrived," Ye Ziyi said.
"Okay~ Heave-ho!" Jiang Yanmu jumped up from the sofa chair in a flash.
In the movie, the person you secretly love finally gets a happy ending. On a rainy day, under the eaves of an art museum, you reunite with the person you love.
The boy said, "But now I have nothing left."
The girl said, "It's okay, everything I like is still here."
The movie's ending credits: "Confess your feelings now."
Jiang Yanmu glanced at Ye Ziyi beside her and thought to herself, "After the college entrance exam..."
"Let's go! Next..." He said, waving the milk tea with only lime left in his hand, "Jiang, where do you want to go?" After saying that, he ran to the trash can to throw it away.
She ran back and stood in front of Ye Ziyi before asking, "Are you hungry?"
"Hmm... a little bit~"
"Let's eat first and then go to the library."
"Okay!" Skipping over puddles left by the water truck, he hopped to a mala tang (spicy hot pot) stall, pointed at the shop, and asked, "Want this? Or something else?"
"This one will do."
Ye Ziyi walked ahead, and Jiang Yanmu followed behind, skipping and hopping up the steps. She added a little of almost everything she liked. She added three large spoonfuls of sesame paste and several spoonfuls of chili, making her mouth water. Picking up a mouthful of enoki mushrooms coated in sesame paste and chili, she exclaimed, "Mmm, delicious! Ouch, it's quite spicy!" She tried to fan her burning tongue with her hand.
He scooped up another spoonful of soup. "Delicious! Hiss!"
"If it's so spicy, why add so much?"
Jiang Yanmu explained while hissing, "I like to add a little spice to everything I eat. Without spice, it doesn't taste good. I thought that if I used a small spoon to scoop out the chili peppers and added them a few times, it wouldn't be so spicy. I didn't expect it to be so spicy, hiss."
"Oh, how about we buy some drinks to help us cool down?"
"Hmm, what would you like to drink? I'll bring it to you."
"No need, thank you."
The two sat quietly in the library, researching and reading novels. Every now and then, Ye Ziyi would take pictures and edit them, intending to transcribe them later. Jiang Yanmu, meanwhile, read a novel beside him. Occasionally, she would cover her face with the book, glance at Ye Ziyi, finish reading, quickly cover it again, and then casually continue reading. When she came across something exciting, she couldn't help but laugh out loud. Worried about disturbing Ye Ziyi, she carefully looked up at him, and seeing that he was alright, she breathed a sigh of relief.
Before leaving, I bought a few novels. Holding the books, we strolled through the night market. When we returned with some grilled skewers, Jiang Nan, who was playing games on the sofa, teased as soon as we walked in, "Yo~ you're back!"
"Oh~ I'm waiting for you," Jiang Yanmu teased back.
You're overthinking it.
I never thought of that.
"..."
Here, these kebabs I brought you, you're welcome.
Pulling Ye Ziyi's hand, she walked towards the photo booth. They took several photos, mostly funny ones, except for one where she stood with a blank expression and made a peace sign. "Give me a peace sign, Jiang!"
"Hmm..." Ye Ziyi made a peace sign with Jiang Yanmu's hand. Ye Ziyi gave a cold "V" sign, while Jiang Yanmu stood on tiptoe behind him, making two peace signs on either side of his head, shouting, "V!"
"Can I cup your face?" she said, reaching out to cup Ye Ziyi's cheeks. Seeing that he didn't react, and realizing that she had cupped them without asking permission, she lowered her hands. "Or you can pinch them back. I was wrong just now; I shouldn't have done that without asking."
As Jiang Yanmu lowered her hand, Ye Ziyi grabbed it, saying, "It's alright, you can hold it."
"Really? Is it okay?"
"Okay, sure."
"How can you be so kind, Jiang?"
She stepped out of the bathroom, rubbing her hair with a towel, and casually opened a video call. "Just finished showering."
"Hmm, too lazy to blow-dry, I'll just let the fan dry it myself." After drying her hair for a while, she put down the towel, took out her notebook, and started doing her homework.
Water droplets from her hair fell onto the notebook. Jiang Yanmu pulled out a tissue, blotted the water from her hair, and turned to find Ye Ziyi looking at her. "What's wrong?" she asked.
"fine"
"oh"
Jiang Yanmu's hair had been mostly dried by the fan. After running her fingers through her hair, she continued working on her problems, feeling both slow and shocked that she could actually solve them all! There wasn't a single problem she couldn't answer.
"That means you're already very capable."
"Hehe, I'm getting embarrassed by all this praise," Jiang Yanmu said, scratching her head.
Jiang Yanmu continued working on the problem, muttering to herself as she continued, "When X is 1..."
While writing, I started playing music, but before doing so, I asked, "I'm playing music, is that okay? Will it disturb you?"
"Won't"
"That's good," she said, shaking her head and unconsciously humming a song, "I can draw you, but I can't draw your bones."
Remembering your expression is my unwavering commitment to waiting for you.
"You are a song I can never finish singing"
When it was time to eat, Jiang's mother called from downstairs, "Dinner's ready, Xiaoyan—"
Jiang Yanmu got up, opened the door, and replied, "Okay~ Coming right away." She then went back to her desk, straightened her earphone cord, and said to Ye Ziyi in the video, "I'm going to eat now, bye-bye."
"Bye-bye!" she waved at the video and ran downstairs for dinner. She sipped her pig's trotter and winter melon soup with one hand and ate with the other...
I opened the diary again.
July 24, 2022.
[We still video chat together, it's still just the two of us, and we're very happy today.] Jiang Yanmu drew a smiling emoji at the end of her diary.
Lying in bed, I logged onto Weibo, which I hadn't used in a while, and posted: "I'm still very happy today."
After lunch, Jiang Yanmu returned to the classroom. Before she even opened the door, she knew the other students were already on the podium, scrolling through videos on Douyin (TikTok). Jiang Yanmu sat down and watched some videos on the screen. Soon after, the bell rang, and most of the others were asleep, slumped over their desks. The homeroom teacher came over and saw a few still talking, scolding them a few times before they finally quieted down and went to sleep. "What are you doing? Why are you making noise instead of sleeping? If you can't sleep, you can read. Don't talk and disturb others." Jiang Yanmu quietly stayed in the corner doing her homework. When she was almost done, she took out a novel she had borrowed from the library a few days ago and read for a while. She hadn't been reading long when her stomach suddenly started hurting. She quickly grabbed a few tissues and headed to the toilet.
Her legs were numb from squatting, and she was just about to get up to use the restroom when two people quickly entered and locked the stall door, giving Jiang Yanmu no chance to react. They made a lot of noise, pressing their bodies against the door and kissing, panting, "Ah~ slow down, what's the rush~" the girl said.
"How can I not be anxious? It's been several days, I've been waiting for this moment, of course I'm anxious!" said the boy.
"Ouch! Be gentle!" the girl said.
"Okay, haha," the boy said.
Startled, Jiang Yanmu covered her nose in another cubicle, thinking to herself, "Sometimes having cubicles is not good, like now."
"Someone, please save me! I want to get out of here!!!"
Fortunately, someone came in from behind, stopping the two kissing. After the person left, Jiang Yanmu planned to tiptoe in and create the illusion that someone else had come in to use the restroom. However, as soon as they left, the two in the stall started arguing again. Helpless, Jiang Yanmu retreated, not daring to move. "I just don't understand," she muttered, "the restroom smells so bad, what's so great about kissing? Is it because it's convenient? Okay, it is convenient. Sigh, what a miserable life."
They squatted there until the bell rang, then left, panting. "They're so affectionate! Aren't they tired at all?" they complained. The first thing they did after getting up was to relieve themselves. By the time they left, their legs were numb. Back in the classroom, they collapsed onto their desks.
Upon hearing the ringing bell, Ji Chen turned to Jiang Yanmu and asked, "Are you feeling unwell?"
Jiang Yanmu raised her head, laughed, and said, "Hmm..." Then she immediately lowered her head back down.
After a short break, class started. "Wake up, everyone, class is starting," said the English teacher.
"Turn to the sixty-seven page and let's begin the lesson."
“Did you know that the silk Road Was neither an actual road nor a single route”
Did you know that the Silk Road was neither a physical route nor a single route?
“What’s more…”
During evening self-study, the English teacher, wearing white sneakers and a light green, traditional-style cheongsam, walked into the classroom holding test papers. "Have you all finished the reading comprehension?"
Most people said they had "finished it."
"Let's look at the first question. Robert wanted to blah blah when he and Henry turned the corner. What did Robert and Henry want to do when they turned the corner? Let's look at the original text. Robert and Henry were going home for lunch from school."
"Then……"
"That's all for now. We'll move on to the next question in class. If you haven't finished, hurry up and do the rest. We need to finish half of it tonight." After evening self-study, Jiang Yanmu returned to her dorm, put down her bag, grabbed her toiletries, and rushed to wash up. She quickly got into bed and continued reading the novel she hadn't finished at noon. Whenever Jiang Yanmu read a novel, her hand would frequently wander into her hair.
I read novels and listened to them chat.
Every morning, Jiang Yanmu had to go to the playground for morning exercises, watching the instructors on stage perform the "Your Smile Is So Beautiful" routine, and then trying to imitate them. At first, it was manageable, but by the second round, Jiang Yanmu was already panting from exhaustion. Finally, the grueling morning exercises ended, and everyone eagerly left the playground to buy snacks at the convenience store. Jiang Yanmu first accompanied Du Suisui to the store to buy food. After they finished, it was almost time for the bell to ring, and the two of them ran to the art studio.
Jiang Yanmu took a bucket to fetch water, and as she was about to leave, she saw Du Suisui eating chicken feet that she had secretly brought from the classroom, sitting by the corridor. "Why did you bring them out to eat?" Jiang Yanmu said with a wry smile.
"Hehe, I'm hungry, I want to eat something." Du Suisui quickly finished the chicken feet and said to Jiang Yanmu, who was about to leave, "Wait for me, Jiang Yanmu."
"Okay," Jiang Yanmu placed the bucket on the windowsill and looked out the window to wait.
I picked up my paintbrush and continued painting the unfinished jars, fruits, plates, and cloths. It seemed that the classroom was only quiet when it was time to draw, although a few people would still whisper in the corner.
Even after class ended, everyone was still drawing. One person was running out of paint and wanted to ask Du Suisui next to him for some. Turning around, he saw her starting to nibble on beef jerky while drawing. "Aren't you afraid of getting it on your skin?"
"No, I won't let it get in." As she spoke, a piece of beef jerky slipped from Du Suisui's hand and fell into Jiang Yanmu's bucket. The two of them paused for a moment, then burst into laughter simultaneously, "Hahahaha!"
"It's gone," Du Suisui said, chewing on beef jerky.
"Be careful, it might fall into your bucket again."
No, it won't.
"Okay," Jiang Yanmu said, taking the bucket and squeezing out some hand sanitizer to rinse it. She sharpened her dull pencil and used a 2B pencil to mark the position and roughly draw the shape on a folded and torn piece of A4 paper. She then took several other 12B pencils of varying hardness and softness and kept them aside for rotation. She wiped the area with a cotton pad and continued drawing on the areas she had smudged. Because she had accidentally bought too many highlighter erasers online and was worried about not using them all, she used them whenever she needed to erase, using as much as she could.
Jiang Yanmu spent two class periods finishing her homework, writing her name and the date in the bottom right corner, and handing it in to the teacher. With a few minutes left before class ended, she got bored and took out the shavings from the pencil sharpener with her 2B pencil to play with. She also squeezed the cotton pad she had just applied makeup to, playing until the end of class.
Taking advantage of Jiang Yanmu's momentary lapse in attention, Du Suisui smeared some hand sanitizer on her hands, which were still wet from washing. "Du Suisui, you really are..." Jiang Yanmu sighed and washed her hands again. She went downstairs for her tie-dye class, tore off a piece of paper, and brought down a pen. She drew a rhombus on the paper, then drew the edges of an ancient window inside it. Later, she placed the drawn paper on a board, traced the outline with a carving knife, and carved it out.
Jiang Yanmu pricked herself with the carving knife several times. "Ouch, I pricked myself again!" After rubbing the pricked spot, she continued carving. Before she finished, she put the carving knife and her group's work into the table and planned to continue carving in the next class.
Because they were making so much noise during class, the entire group had to stay behind to clean the classroom. They couldn't go eat until everything was done. One girl complained as she swept, "This is so annoying!"
The teacher, standing to one side, said, "Stop chatting, get back to scanning."
Seeing the noodles with soybean paste, Jiang Yanmu immediately grabbed one, and also took a bowl of mung bean soup. Compared to the noodles with soybean paste she had eaten outside, the ones at school were really tastier. Whenever she tasted something delicious, Jiang Yanmu would shake her head.
Jiang Yanmu took a bottle of lemon black tea from the snack cabinet and placed it on her desk. This time, she put her homework aside, took out her sketchbook, drew a chibi-style portrait of herself, and then colored it with colored highlighters. Jiang Yanmu, with her hair down and wearing a pink nightgown, put down her pen, held up her finished drawing, and showed it to Ye Ziyi, eagerly awaiting his reply, "How is it, Ye?"
"cute"
"Right~" She curled up the corners of her mouth with a smug look.
Jiang Yanmu became so engrossed in drawing that she asked, "Want me to draw one for you too?"
"OK"
Are there any requirements?
You can draw whatever you want.
"good!"
I drew a chibi-style figure on a piece of paper, sitting on a blanket wearing a white t-shirt with a kitten design, holding a black mitten cap with a small orange kitten on it. The chibi figure looked down at the kitten and smiled.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
