Chapter 15 Playing House
The little girl seemed to be frightened by Qing Bai. She trembled and said softly, "Brother, don't cry. I'll play with you."
"I'm not crying." It's not that you play with me.
Qing Bai secretly exerted force on his hands that were supporting the ground, and made sufficient mental preparation before he raised his eyelids again to look at the person in front of him... His brows were furrowed, as if he disagreed, but he did not turn around and leave directly, or rather, he did not leave.
Qing Bai's bad mood improved a little. He looked into the man's eyes and asked, "What's your name?"
The man looked at him with half-lowered eyes and said nothing.
Qing Bai raised the umbrella he was holding tightly in his hand, shook it at him, and said, "I have to go through the takeaway delivery confirmation process to make sure it's delivered to the right person."
The man's brows didn't relax, but he still accepted Qing Bai's fabricated reason, but he spoke very sparingly: "Nine years."
Qing Bai's breathing stagnated, and he asked hurriedly, "Which two words?"
Man: "The season is nine, the years are years."
Qing Bai said expressionlessly: "Wrong."
Qing Bai's reaction was so abrupt that the man was a little slow to react: "What?"
Qing Bai ignored him and turned to look for the little girl. Then he found that the little girl who had been shivering behind the tombstone just now was now sticking half of her body out. There was no trace of fear on her little round face. Instead, it was filled with sincere happiness and excitement. It seemed that she was happy that someone finally played with her, and it seemed that she was excited to have control of the game.
"What's your name again?" Qing Bai seemed to be really trying to find and confirm the customer's name... so seriously that he didn't even let the children go.
"Nannan... they call me that." The little girl curled her lips, obviously not liking the name.
Qing Bai had a feeling that this was as he expected, and his expression didn't change at all: "My name is Qing Bai."
…her eyes just drifted to the side. The man named Jiu Nian was waiting there patiently, his posture not changing at all.
The little girl quickly became happy again: "Brother Qingbai, let's start playing house!"
Qing Bai was about to nod when a man's voice rang out beside him: "Don't answer."
Take the initiative to talk, not for takeout, nor because you are forced to introduce yourself.
Qing Bai could finally look at people openly. He raised his eyebrows slightly, did not answer, but only wrote the three big words "why" on his face.
Jiu Nian took a step to the side, revealing the tomb that was blocked behind him. It looked very familiar. It was the "small round tomb" that Qing Bai had carefully observed before. The three words "Li Nannan" were written in iron and silver strokes on the tombstone.
"So?" Qing Bai looked calm and seemed a little indifferent.
Jiu Nian probably didn't expect the person in front of him to be so fearless. He was stunned for a moment, and just as he was about to speak to persuade him, he heard the little girl's joyful and somewhat shrill voice: "Ah! Someone else is coming! Someone else is coming!"
The two turned their heads at the same time. Jiu Nian frowned even more tightly, and the indifference on Qing Bai's face quietly disappeared.
"Brother Qing! Why are you here too?"
"Hello, Teacher Qing."
At the edge of the cemetery, the little fat boy was as heartless as ever. When he saw Qing Bai looking over, he waved his hands vigorously. Next to him was a pretty girl in a blue dress... They were all acquaintances.
The girl in the blue skirt is called Li Canglan. She is the granddaughter of Grandpa Li next door, the provider of their first real job, and currently a student in Qi Xiaopang's cram school.
Little girl Nannan was so happy that she had already left the tombstone. Qing Bai took the initiative and said, "Why are you running around in such hot weather? Have you found the cat? Have you finished your homework? Go home!"
The girl in the blue dress was stunned by the scolding. Fat Qi, however, was quick-witted. Having experienced both Minglang and Aichan, he knew the moment he saw the graves scattered across the ground that this place wasn't a good place to stay for long... Not to mention the eerie little girl standing on top of the graves, and the long-haired man in black, disheveled hair, who looked unrecognizable as a ghost or human. Either of these alone seemed unapproachable, let alone when they appeared together. The atmosphere was filled with terror.
"Oh, yeah, I was looking for a cat! How did I end up here? Hahaha..." He even pulled the girl next to him, "Come on, let's go back to class. The teacher is giving us extra class time for free today!"
Li Canglan was a little confused: "Then...what about Teacher Qing?"
Qi Xiaopang felt a chill on the back of his neck. He wanted to grab his students and run away, but he was afraid of angering the 'people' in the cemetery, so he could only give a perfunctory laugh while preparing a retreat: "Your teacher Qing...your teacher Qing...he just likes staying in places like this. It's cool!"
Qing Bai was almost going crazy with anxiety. "Student Li Canglan, if you really want to do this for your teacher, run away quickly. If you're lucky, we can still get help from the monks. Otherwise, the three of us, teacher and student, will all die here today..."
Suddenly, a gust of wind blew up in the forest, blowing the leaves that had just fallen from the ground into the air. A leaf flew diagonally between Qi Xiaopang and Li Canglan with the wind. They both shrank their necks at the same time, as if what was blowing past them was not a leaf or wind, but... a breath.
The two of them froze in place, unable to run away even if they wanted to.
Seeing the student's pale face after finally realizing what was going on, Qing Bai sighed and turned to look at the girl who was spinning in circles with excitement: "Having the two of us with you isn't enough for you?"
Qi Xiaopang was so moved that he would have clung to Qing Bai's thigh if he hadn't been unable to move... For them, his Qing brother, his spotless and bright Qing brother, actually said to a little brat the lines that countless female students from Peking University had dreamed of. What's the difference between this and sacrificing oneself to feed a tiger and cutting flesh to feed an eagle? Tears welled up in my eyes!
The little girl didn't understand this. She tilted her round face and said cutely, "It's fun when we play together! Mommy said good children shouldn't exclude other children."
Have you ever thought that other children may not want to play with you?
Qing Bai gave up trying to persuade him. Children and animals were unreasonable, especially this child whose age was unknown before and after death.
Qing Bai turned around and silently handed the umbrella to the person next to him.
Jiu Nian looked at the umbrella in front of him with a bit of surprise, but he didn't take it. He reminded seriously: "My name is wrong."
"The name is wrong... the person is right."
Qing Bai lowered his voice, but Jiu Nian still heard it clearly. He took the umbrella and seemed to suddenly understand the man in front of him. He might not be fearless... At least he was not the kind of person who would do whatever he wanted and involve others without authorization.
He tried his best to treat his students and friends and not let them get involved.
Jiu Nian took the umbrella but did not open it. He just unfastened the umbrella buckle and stuffed the unknown black object that he had been holding in his hand into it, as if stuffing garbage into a garbage bag. The magical thing was that it really went in. The cheap transparent plastic umbrella cover was not exposed at all, as if there was another space inside the umbrella. After fastening the buckle, the umbrella was still the same umbrella.
Even in this situation, it is still amazing to watch.
It turns out that this long-haired man is from their side. No wonder he has such good hair and is so handsome. He is only a little bit inferior to his brother Qing... Qi Xiaopang just sighed in his heart and the next second he was horrified to find that the trees on both sides were retreating. No, they were floating forward...!
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh Brother Qing, help--"
Before he even uttered the word "life", he had already reached his destination - in front of the tomb where the little girl was standing, and his brother Qing was just one step away.
As if pleased by Qi Xiaopang's reaction, the little girl giggled. Perhaps it was because there was too much space around her, or it was too quiet, or both, but the girl's laughter echoed in the woods for a long time. Her originally lively and pleasant laughter became strange and uncomfortable.
Amidst such laughter, Jiu Nian's empty hand suddenly raised and then hesitantly put it down. No one present noticed except Qing Bai.
Qing Bai said, "Good children won't laugh at other children."
The strange laughter stopped abruptly.
Facing the little girl's 'giggling attack', Qi Xiaopang and Li Canglan thought to themselves that Brother Qing/Teacher Qing did a great job of fighting poison with poison!
Qing Bai continued, "It won't make the other kids float up."
The little girl pouted: "Okay..."
Qi Xiaopang and Li Canglan fell back to the ground with a "bang" and were able to move again.
Fortunately, it didn't float too high.
Now Jiu Nian's gaze towards Qing Bai also changed, becoming somewhat strange... and inquiring.
At the same time, he completely let go of his free hand.
Qing Bai tentatively reached out to tidy up the little girl's messy hair, and tried to soften his voice: "...Good girl."
The little girl snorted, but didn't dodge.
Qi Xiaopang: Brother Qing is the most awesome one, he can even rub a little kid.
After comforting the little girl, Qing Bai turned to the older girl and asked, "What are you doing here in the middle of the day?"
Li Canglan was startled by the question, and felt as terrified as if she had been caught skipping class by the teacher. But what had just happened and what was happening now made it impossible for her to regard Teacher Qing as just a tutor or an awesome learning object... Although Teacher Qing was still awesome, awesome in a different way, awesome in every sense of the word.
"I...I came to visit my sister's grave..."
Sister? Qing Bai subconsciously looked at the little girl. This girl also has a sister. Is the two-child policy being implemented so well now?
Qing Bai couldn't see her expression clearly. The little girl who was so arrogant but allowed herself to be rubbed just now lowered her head. From Qing Bai's perspective, he could only see the soft hair on her head and a small whorl. The atmosphere became bad again.
"One, two, three, four, five... Now that everyone is here, let's play house." The little girl said in a faint voice.
Qi Xiaopang rushed behind Qing Bai and did not forget to pull the frightened students into his arms.
"...Do we have to play?" Qing Bai asked.
"You promised." The little girl slowly raised her head, her expressionless face looking at people made her dark and empty eyes seem rounder, bigger, and more frightening. A drop of water flowed down her chin and "plopped" onto the leaves on the ground.
Qing Bai sighed, his voice gentle: "Don't cry, I'll play with you."
Qi Xiaopang mustered up the courage to take a look at the little girl, and his legs went weak and he almost fell to his knees. He trembled and held Qing Bai's arm, his voice as soft as a mosquito: "Brother, wake up, is she crying? She's clearly leaking!"
She was fine just now. Although she looked weird, she looked like a human being and could be praised as a cute little girl at first glance. But in just a few words, she became like a piece of white fungus that had been soaked for too long, swollen and white, with thin streams of water dripping out. It seemed that with just a slight touch, the swollen skin and flesh would fall off, revealing the tiny skeleton inside.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
