3-16: "Want to live with me?"
[Reading tips: This is a proper description; the protagonist is already an adult.]
If I remember correctly.
The deaths of the original owner's parents were also related to the building.
But Huaiyan didn't think much of it.
After all, Bai Wenzhou's current identity is just that of a teacher.
Even though he has a large and successful family, these are things that Bai Wenzhou should not be concerned with.
“Cutting corners, this outcome is not unexpected,” Bai Wenzhou said coldly.
It wasn't in vain; he had prepared for this for so long.
-
After dinner, it was already dark, and the city center of Licheng was beginning to light up.
After leaving Shuiyunxuan, Zhang Sheng said he needed to go to the parking lot to get his car.
Before leaving, he winked at Bai Wenzhou.
The latter said nothing, but glanced at him expressionlessly.
After Zhang Sheng left, Huai Yan breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
"Teacher...
The boy slowly moved to the man's side.
He asked in a low voice, his fingers trembling slightly, "The tutoring you mentioned..."
He felt that if he didn't ask tonight, he wouldn't have such a good opportunity again.
If you miss tonight, it will feel abrupt no matter when you bring it up.
Bai Wenzhou lowered his head, staring intently at the boy, without saying a word.
The man held a phone in his left hand, his fingers with distinct knuckles, which were faintly red.
A gust of evening wind swept by, lifting a corner of the man's trench coat, which fluttered in the air.
Bai Wenzhou then said in a calm voice, "There is no tutoring."
The boy was taken aback, blinked his dry eyes in the wind, and couldn't help but feel a little sad.
He genuinely believed that the man's mention of tutoring was an expression of concern for his grades.
Looking back now, the only reason given was to help him escape Lu Yu's entanglement.
The boy felt inexplicably sad and sniffed, his nose stinging.
He said in a tearful voice, "I...I understand."
He should have known.
Someone as outstanding as Bai Wenzhou would certainly not hesitate to lend a helping hand.
It is only right to help when you see a student being harassed.
And there was the school bullying incident last time.
Huaiyan kept thinking that if it hadn't been him who had the accident that day, would Bai Wenzhou have also shown concern and care for someone else?
And now, all the speculation over the past few days has been answered.
The boy did not win the favor of the men.
Bai Wenzhou refused so decisively, as if he were the only one who cared about the matter.
Huaiyan felt no bitterness in her heart, and thus the distance between her feet and the man grew further.
He felt that he was being incredibly naive.
I had previously overheard Zhang Sheng and Bai Wenzhou discussing the construction company.
Then, thinking back to the original owner's deceased parents.
The boy almost thought that everyone had forgotten about the couple.
Someone will come forward and reopen the case from back then to prove that the couple's deaths were not accidental.
This proves that abandoning a child who was only a teenager and not yet an adult was not a sudden accident.
If I remember correctly, the year the original owner's parents had their accident, they were working for that construction company.
That's why Huaiyan naively thought that Bai Wenzhou might really do all these things quietly and without fanfare.
But reality dealt the boy a resounding blow.
Bai Wenzhou may have just crossed paths with that construction company by chance.
After all, the large-scale construction companies in Licheng are all circulated among the upper echelons.
This kind of thing is not unusual.
Moreover, Bai Wenzhou had no need to investigate these things for the sake of an extremely abnormal student.
Thinking this, Huaiyan's tears welled up at the corners of her eyes.
It turns out that Bai Wenzhou's words of concern were all just his imagination.
Those were simply because he was Bai Wenzhou's student.
The boy, flustered and with a heavy nasal voice, whispered to the man, "Teacher Bai, I'll go back by myself first."
Anyway, he's just a background character who's dispensable.
Without parents, without close friends, every day when I return home, I am faced with endless silence.
Even if such a person has reached adulthood, he is of little use to society.
Now that he finally has a teacher who helps and takes care of him in every way, it turns out to be just an illusion.
The boy buried his chin in his collar in sadness, his heart aching.
That tender part of his heart felt like it was being squeezed tightly, making it hard for him to breathe.
Huaiyan's tears fell in a downpour, and she cried until she could hardly breathe.
The evening breeze carried a chill of late winter.
After being blew on, the boy's eyes and nose turned red.
Especially when he choked up, the corners of the boy's eyes became increasingly red, and there were faint signs of swelling.
Like beads from a broken string, salty and wet tears soaked into the soft fabric of the school uniform.
The boy's back looked flustered, and he probably couldn't be described as dignified when he left.
But the next second...
—Huaiyan's wrist was suddenly gripped tightly.
"Why are you crying?" The man's tone finally showed a slight fluctuation.
He turned the boy around and stared intently into those eyes that were already swollen and disfigured from crying.
The way the boy looked when he said he was leaving just now was nothing like his usual emotionally normal personality.
Bai Wenzhou felt that the boy's extremely sad tone was conveying a single meaning.
He clearly wanted Bai Wenzhou to coax him, comfort him, and hug him.
However, the boy was too proud to admit his shortcomings, had too little experience, and had a weak mental capacity.
"Teacher Bai." Huai Yan's voice was hoarse, and she didn't even want to look up at the man while speaking.
He said slowly, "I...I'm going back."
Huaiyan's nasal tone hadn't subsided, and her voice carried an indescribable sense of grievance and disappointment.
But Bai Wenzhou didn't want to let him leave.
The man gripped Huai Yan's slender right wrist tightly, its bones protruding.
"Why are you crying?" Bai Wenzhou stared at Huai Yan.
His red eyes seemed to hold a layer of cold fire, his gaze slowly and persistently lingering on Huai Yan's features.
It seems we must get an answer.
The authority of the elders is evident at this moment.
"I...I..."
Faced with Bai Wenzhou's persistent questioning, the boy cried even harder.
If no one asks or cares, then Huaiyan is fine.
A good cry will probably make the matter pass.
But that's what people are most afraid of.
It's receiving a caring question from the other person when you feel wronged.
Even a simple "What's wrong?" can easily cause someone to break down.
Huaiyan didn't know how to explain to the man the inexplicable emotions in his heart.
In fact, Bai Wenzhou did nothing wrong.
The man actually helped Huaiyan a lot.
So Huaiyan could only keep shaking her head, hiding her small and delicate face inside her wide collar.
The boy's fluttering eyelashes were also completely wet with tears.
Like a kitten that has suffered all kinds of grievances, seeking the protection and embrace of its owner.
"You're in such a hurry to leave before you've even finished speaking," the man said with a sigh, his Adam's apple bobbing.
Immediately, Bai Wenzhou wiped away the cold, wet tears from the boy's face without any expression.
While the boy stood there, stunned and unable to react...
"I'm asking."
Bai Wenzhou lowered his eyes, looked at the boy's flushed face, and said, word by word, "Would you like to live with me?"
……What?
Bang.
It was as if something had set off a dazzling firework in Huaiyan's heart.
The sound of his heartbeat was deafening.
Suddenly, the boy experienced a brief tinnitus, and his pupils contracted sharply.
He only saw the man's thin lips opening and closing.
The words that came out were like a whispered incantation.
Living together?
Why?
Is it tutoring?
Has his academic performance deteriorated to such an irredeemable level?
Huaiyan's breathing was erratic; she stared blankly at the man, at a loss for what to do.
He had never encountered such a straightforward and unvarnished expression of concern.
This was something a boy would never even dare to dream of.
“…Teacher Bai.” Huai Yan’s throat tightened, and he squeezed out a monotonous syllable with difficulty.
But before Huaiyan could give a satisfactory answer to the man, she did not.
Behind them, the sound of a car horn rang out.
"A-Zhou," Zhang Sheng rolled down the car window and greeted him, "Get in."
Huai Yan thus missed the best time to answer.
He watched as Bai Wenzhou opened the car door, gesturing for him to get in.
For a moment, Huaiyan moved awkwardly and cautiously, observing the man's expression.
"Oh, by the way," Zhang Sheng said suddenly as he pressed the clutch, "I received a phone call when I went to the parking lot just now."
Bai Wenzhou closed the car door, showing no reaction upon hearing this: "What?"
Zhang Sheng's voice suddenly paused.
He seemed taken aback by Bai Wenzhou's attitude and barely managed to stop speaking.
A few seconds later, Zhang Sheng glanced at the oblivious boy in the rearview mirror, his gaze complex.
Bai Wenzhou glanced at Zhang Sheng expressionlessly and said indifferently, "Speak if you have something to say."
Zhang Sheng sighed softly and drove the car onto the wide, busy road.
“It’s Gao Mingze.” Zhang Sheng’s tone was strange as he asked Bai Wenzhou, “Have you been in contact with him recently?”
Mentioning Gao Mingze only takes a moment.
Bai Wenzhou's expression changed almost imperceptibly, and he even frowned slightly.
It was like a calm lake surface suddenly being hit by a huge boulder weighing thousands of pounds.
It stirred up a raging storm.
"No." Bai Wenzhou turned his head to look out the window and said coldly, "What does he want with you?"
Zhang Sheng noticed that his childhood friend's tone was unusual.
Considering the presence of children, Zhang Sheng dared not say anything more.
He simply said, "...He somehow got your contact information."
"If you see an unfamiliar number, just don't answer it." Zhang Sheng sighed heavily again, his mood complicated.
Huai Yan sat in the back row, staring intently at Bai Wenzhou's profile.
The man's cold, stern face appeared unpredictable under the changing lights.
The light divided the man's face into two sides, one bright and one dark, with one half shrouded in dim shadow.
Who is Gao Mingze?
The boy pondered this with confusion, and couldn't help but feel a subtle jealousy towards this man he had never met before.
What kind of person could make Bai Wenzhou lose his composure and calmness?
Lover, or former lover?
Huaiyan's mind was a bit of a mess.
Suddenly, he heard Zhang Sheng say something that seemed to have no beginning or end.
“His license plate number hasn’t been changed yet.” Zhang Sheng curled his lip. “If you don’t like it, I’ll buy it for you from him.”
There's a lot of hidden information in those words.
Before Huaiyan could figure it out, he received Bai Wenzhou's answer.
"No need." The man's voice was cold and indifferent, as if he didn't care at all.
But Huaiyan knew.
Judging from Bai Wenzhou's subtle reactions just now, there's a degree of feigned indifference in the man's behavior.
Upon hearing this, Zhang Sheng didn't say anything more.
He muttered a few words and said, "That's true, anyway you probably won't see him again."
Huai Yan clearly sensed this after Bai Wenzhou said "no need".
Zhang Sheng was clearly relieved as well.
What kind of person is Gao Mingze?
Or is it that he really did have a close relationship with Bai Wenzhou?
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