Chapter 80: They're all brothers
Chapter 80: They're all brothers
The national treasure-level thoughtful care they received from their teachers and classmates wasn't the end of it. The next day at noon, as they were about to go to the cafeteria for lunch, they unexpectedly saw a familiar face at the cafeteria entrance.
He Linjie's mother.
Fang Yuenian didn't recognize who it was at first, since she had only met him once. It was only after hearing Li Peixiang curse "Damn" under his breath that she realized who it was.
Everyone had already reached the cafeteria entrance, surrounded by students eager to join the queue. It was impossible to just turn around and leave. Besides, He Linjie's mother had already spotted Meng Xiaoyang and was waving at him.
"How do we do it? Are you going over there?" Li Peixiang asked.
Meng Xiaoyang's expression was a little stiff as he said, "You guys go and line up, you don't need to wait for me."
Undeterred, Li Peixiang asked, "Will I get you food?"
"No."
As he said this, Meng Xiaoyang walked towards Mother He.
Li Peixiang grinned, looking quite displeased. Fang Yuenian patted him on the shoulder and said, "Let's go!"
As they passed the two people, they clearly heard Meng Xiaoyang call out "Aunt Fen".
He's mother's name is Shufen, and Meng Xiaoyang has called her Aunt Fen since he was very young.
It took them a while to queue up. After they sat down with their trays, Meng Xiaoyang had already started eating in a corner not far away. Their table looked very lavish, and Shu Fen seemed to be constantly urging them to eat more.
Yes, them, of course, including their own son.
Li Peixiang seemed to have a thorn in his side, glancing over there every now and then. Fang Yuenian couldn't help but say, "Why are you always looking at them?"
“I don’t understand,” Li Peixiang poked at his rice and said fiercely, “Why did He Linjie’s mother do this…”
Fang Yuenian and Cheng Bing exchanged a glance. Although he knew it was unnecessary, he still explained, "He Linjie helped a lot yesterday. He also injured his arm. When he got home, his parents would definitely ask, so he told them what happened. He Linjie's mother took care of Meng Xiaoyang when he was a child. When she heard that he was seriously injured, she came over to bring him some food and such. It's normal."
“What’s normal about that?” Li Peixiang said dejectedly. “It’s not like we don’t know they’ve fallen out.”
Fang Yuenian shrugged and glanced at Cheng Bing beside her. "What do you think?"
Cheng Bing: "Parents may think that they just had a fight, or that they became estranged after being separated into different classes. After all, if their relationship was really bad, He Linjie wouldn't have gotten injured while saving someone."
Fang Yuenian agreed and whispered, "So we can only blame He Linjie for his incoherent actions. But if it weren't for him, Meng Xiaoyang would have broken his leg and might have hit his head, so we should still thank him. Besides, He Linjie is He Linjie, and the mother came over to bring him a meal out of kindness. Her son just got injured helping her, so can Meng Xiaoyang say, 'I won't eat this, do I have a grudge against your son?'"
Cheng Bing listened to him and looked at him for a while with some surprise.
It's rare to see someone so earnest and persuasive.
Li Peixiang irritably poked at the few pieces of chicken cutlet on his plate, having no appetite for food; he probably just wanted to put his ear to the other table and eavesdrop.
Meng Xiaoyang had mixed feelings during the meal.
Shufen cooked a lot of dishes, saying she made them especially for him because she knew he had injured his bone. There was bone broth and also a thick, creamy fish soup. She said she knew Meng Xiaoyang practically lived at school, eating in the cafeteria every day, and now that his hand was injured, he needed to eat more. The heartache and affection in her words and expression were genuine, just like when she used to invite Meng Xiaoyang to her house for meals when they were little.
He Linjie was eating his own food nearby.
He injured his right hand and had been having difficulty writing all morning, so he simply switched to using his left hand to eat with a spoon and rarely looked up.
—He hadn’t spoken to Meng Xiaoyang since they went to the hospital together.
Shu Fen also brought a lot of fruit, which Meng Xiaoyang was too embarrassed to accept. After declining a couple of times, Shu Fen said, "You silly child, why are you refusing what Aunt Fen is offering you? Didn't you love my cooking the most when you were little? I was also thinking of bringing you some milk, but Xiao Jie said your homeroom teacher bought it for you. I thought it was almost vacation time, so I didn't buy it. Xiaoyang, are you spending your summer vacation at your uncle's house? If you are, you must come to my place often. Aunt Fen will cook for you every day to help you recover. Look at you, you've grown so much taller since junior high, and you've gotten so thin. How will you manage in your senior year of high school?"
To be fair, although he has the love and care of his classmates and teachers, Meng Xiaoyang hasn't heard his parents say things like that in a very, very long time.
He silently held the soup bowl, barely daring to look up at Shufen.
Seeing him like this, Shu Fen felt sad. She had watched Meng Xiaoyang grow up and knew that the child had a hard life. So she asked softly, "Xiaoyang, when you are in your senior year of high school, how about Aunt Fen brings you a meal every day? It's not troublesome at all, just cook a little extra."
Meng Xiaoyang couldn't agree no matter what. He looked at Shu Fen and said in a low voice, "Aunt Fen, it's really not necessary. He Linjie and I sometimes don't get off get out of class at the same time, it's too troublesome. Actually, the school cafeteria is pretty good. I can eat with my roommates, it's okay. Thank you, Aunt Fen."
Shu Fen couldn't force her, so she could only sigh and say, "Then if anything happens to you in the future, you must tell me. Don't do everything by yourself, okay?"
Meng Xiaoyang nodded. "Okay, I understand."
Shufen then said to her son, "And you, Xiaojie, pay more attention to Xiaoyang. You two used to be as close as brothers, so why can't you talk things out? Don't throw tantrums, do you hear me?"
He Linjie said expressionlessly, "Oh."
This little incident had a rather long-term impact. Meng Xiaoyang was quite absent-minded from afternoon to evening, Li Peixiang was even more irritable, and Fang Yuenian was helpless.
In fact, even though they had been classmates and roommates for two years, Meng Xiaoyang had never seriously talked to Fang Yuenian about his childhood.
Fang Yuenian was hesitant to ask at first, since mentioning He Linjie was unpleasant enough. Later, he gradually forgot about it, since Meng Xiaoyang seemed no different from anyone else. Now, it wasn't appropriate to ask, as exams were approaching and talking about those things would likely affect his mood. He decided to wait until summer vacation when he had more free time to discuss it.
Saturday arrived just like that, and with only one week left in the entire second year of high school, the final exams were just around the corner, and everyone was cramming like crazy. Chen Yu and Wang Wei went to the classroom early in the morning to study.
Fang Yuenian's arm has had its dressing changed twice. It's almost healed, but just to be on the safe side, it's still wrapped in gauze. Meng Xiaoyang went to the infirmary for IV drips after class for the first two afternoons, but he doesn't go anymore. He's recovering well, but nothing can be removed yet.
Fang Yuenian slept in as usual, unlike just after eight o'clock when Cheng Bing brought breakfast over.
He had just opened his eyes and vaguely saw a person carrying a lot of things coming in, and he was instantly wide awake.
"Brother Cheng!"
Cheng Bing hummed in agreement. “Get up and eat,” she said, glancing at Meng Xiaoyang who was studying in the corner. “You haven’t eaten yet? The cafeteria has egg pancakes, steamed buns, and soy milk, all served hot. Come on.”
Meng Xiaoyang took off her headphones, smiled broadly, and said, "Okay, thank you."
Fang Yuenian had already rolled off the bed and sidled up to Cheng Bing with a grin: "Then I'll thank you too, Brother Cheng! I'm going to brush my teeth, you sit here by yourself."
Cheng Bing noticed a tuft of hair sticking up on his head, reached out and pressed it down, but couldn't. "Go on."
Fang Yuenian scratched his head and rushed to the balcony. A moment later, while brushing his teeth, he asked, "Meng Xiaoyang, are you going to the hospital for a check-up tomorrow?"
"Okay, I'll go tomorrow. If everything's alright, I can focus on my exams next week," Meng Xiaoyang replied.
Cheng Bing set out breakfast for the two wounded soldiers and asked, "Are you feeling less pain now?"
Meng Xiaoyang: "That's all. I'm almost used to having only one hand."
Fang Yuenian, having just finished washing his face, came over refreshed and sat down on a stool. Cheng Bing pushed the steamed buns in front of him, and he ate them contentedly.
"What's your plan for today?" he asked Meng Xiaoyang. "Are you going to study in the dorm all day?"
Meng Xiaoyang took a sip of soy milk. "Uh, maybe I should just go to class."
"Didn't you bring all the books back? Just leave them in the dorm, it'll be more comfortable. It's inconvenient to move around like that." Fang Yuenian said, then looked at Cheng Bing, "Brother Cheng, is anyone in your dorm?"
"Not now."
Fang Yuenian then curled the corners of her lips into a smile.
Meng Xiaoyang pretended not to see and buried his head in eating the pancake.
Cheng Bing said, "I'm going to the classroom today to discuss some problems with some classmates."
Fang Yuenian's lips drooped quickly. "Oh."
He finished a steamed bun and reached for his cup of soy milk. "Okay then, I guess I'll stay in the dorm too. Oh, right, I have a few questions to ask you, about that 2008 example problem the physics teacher gave us yesterday..."
Cheng Bing watched him and Meng Xiaoyang discuss things, giving him a side profile view, and felt a little amused.
The following day, Fang Yuenian spent her time exactly like a diligent student preparing for exams. Before leaving, Cheng Bing cleared the table for the two of them, making room for them to study. Meng Xiaoyang, having sensed their unusual atmosphere all morning, seemed quite moved and even asked Fang Yuenian during a break from studying, "Have you always gotten along like this?"
Fang Yuenian bit her pen, "What?"
"I mean, you and Cheng Bing get along too naturally; even brothers wouldn't get along this well."
Fang Yuenian was stunned for a moment, and stammered a little, "Ah, ah?" He thought for a moment, "No, no, right? You don't know, Cheng Bing is a mature person for his age, he's been like this since he was a child."
Meng Xiaoyang smiled and said, "That's great."
Fang Yuenian rubbed her ear and chuckled.
In the evening, Cheng Bing, who had been studying diligently all day, finally returned and invited the two of them to have dinner together.
After a long day of mental work, all three of them were quite tired. After dinner, Meng Xiaoyang said they were going back to the dorm to pack up and go to sleep. Fang Yuenian also felt very hot, so the three of them went back to the dorm to take a shower.
After washing up, Cheng Bing called Fang Yuenian over and said she wanted to go for a walk.
It was completely dark by then, the time of week when the school was least crowded and the daytime heat had lessened, making it a perfect time to stroll around campus. Fang Yuenian readily agreed.
In fact, he really enjoyed walking with Cheng Bing at school, especially in this season. The branches of the trees on both sides of the main road formed a deep green dome, and the rich fragrance of grass and trees made people temporarily forget the pressure of studying, the endless test papers, and the upcoming senior year of high school.
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