Zhu Changyu
Before Zhu Changyu started elementary school, his mother would buy him a princess dress for every birthday and ask him to wear it for photos. Zhu Changyu was so delicate and tender under her careful care that he truly looked like a little girl.
He had always been inseparable from his mother in kindergarten, but unfortunately, she had something to do when he was about to report to first grade. Zhu Changyu insisted that he could handle it, but without his mother's embrace, alone in elementary school, he couldn't fit in with his male classmates.
He didn't cry when he was alone, but he couldn't help crying when he met a mad dog. Fortunately, a girl helped him drive the dog away.
That was the first time Zhu Changyu met Xu Yangyang. She had a high ponytail and big eyes. She reached out to help him up.
After a few words, her mother called her and they separated their hands. A moment later, her mother also came back, and Zhu Changyu shared with her, "Just now a girl helped me chase away the dog."
My mother is a Buddhist. She smiled and said, "Is she a classmate? Next time you see her, you must repay her well."
Zhu Changyu nodded, and the next day he was even happier to find that he and Xu Yangyang were deskmates.
Thinking about what his mother said about repaying a favor, Zhu Changyu would put candy in Xu Yangyang's desk, help Xu Yangyang pick up pens, join them in the game when they needed more people, and even send her home.
After a few times, Zhu Changyu felt that he had repaid the favor enough, but Xu Yangyang helped him teach a lesson to the boys who bullied him, so he had to continue. So they played together at school, talked a lot on the way home from school, and naturally became each other's best friends.
Mom always insisted on telling Zhu Changyu stories before bed, and Dad would sometimes stay with them after coming back from social events.
That day, Xu Yangyang cried at school because her parents were getting divorced. Her father no longer loved her mother and didn't want her. At night, when her parents were putting her to sleep, she was curious, "Why did Mom and Dad get married? Does love disappear?"
"When I was in high school, I sent your mother home for three years. She was so moved that she agreed to marry me," Dad said proudly. Mom answered his other question, "Everything in the world changes, so love will disappear... But we can try to make it disappear more slowly, or disappear briefly and then exist again."
"Go to sleep!" Mom put a kiss on his forehead and whispered softly.
Zhu Changyu closed his eyes. Xu Yangyang's voice reached his ears. "What's wrong with your parents getting divorced? My mom is the best mom in the world... Calligraphy is annoying. I want to learn drums... What are you signing up for in the sports meet? Let's go tug-of-war together... Give me your pocket money. I'm sure I'll win the jackpot this time... I'm sure I'll win the jackpot next time."
Zhu Changyu opened his eyes. He was in sixth grade, and Xu Yangyang had squandered all his pocket money. For a long time, they hadn't had any snacks on the way home from school. With no money or soy milk, Xu Yangyang walked ahead, looking unhappy, with her hands in her pockets.
Walking past a convenience store, he suddenly pulled out a one-dollar coin from his trouser pocket and ran to Xu Yangyang happily, "Xu Yangyang, look, I still have some money. How about buying you some soy milk?"
Xu Yangyang stared at him blankly and flicked his forehead. "Idiot, if you have money, why don't you buy something you like? Why did you buy soy milk for me?"
She walked away. Zhu Changyu looked down at the coin and then at her. Only then did he realize that his feelings for Xu Yangyang were not a way of repaying a favor, but out of love.
Soon after, his parents planned to move to a house in the school district to make it more convenient for him to attend junior high school. Zhu Changyu thought that after moving, he would be in the same direction as Xu Yangyang's family and would go to a different school. He quickly stopped them, saying, "I won't move. There are still my childhood paintings on the wall. I can't bear to leave. I want to stay here."
My mother originally said that she couldn't bear to leave any traces of life here, but after Zhu Changyu made such a fuss, she decided not to move.
Zhu Changyu successfully entered the same middle school as Xu Yangyang. He was looking forward to her scratching off his lottery card during the summer vacation to find out that he liked her, but it seemed that she didn't notice.
Xu Yangyang only wanted to go to the playground to watch her seniors play basketball, so Zhu Changyu also joined the team and made some friends on the basketball team.
It's just that Xu Yangyang never cheered her on, always cheering on his rivals. Zhu Changyu felt bored, and when someone asked him to play basketball, he would just chase them away, saying, "I hate playing basketball the most. Don't ask me to play basketball anymore."
"You are really not suitable for playing basketball." Xu Yangyang touched his head like a puppy, as if she still regarded him as a childish follower. Zhu Changyu got angry and said that he would treat him as a boy in the future. Xu Yangyang agreed, and he felt better.
Zhu Changyu's parents never asked anything of him, so his poor grades didn't matter. It was just that Xu Yangyang was doing well, and with the high school entrance exam approaching, the school was under strict supervision for several years, even offering her a place on a temporary basis at a key high school. Zhu Changyu was worried he wouldn't be able to get into No. 1 Middle School, so he separated from Xu Yangyang and focused solely on his studies.
Fortunately, the junior high school questions were simple, and Zhu Changyu was not particularly stupid, so he improved them after some supplementary study.
He and Xu Yangyang both entered No. 1 Middle School, but Xu Yangyang did not focus her attention on him because he was not handsome.
When Xu Yangyang was in her first year of high school, she fell in love with her idol, Zhu Changyu, so she joined the band as a drummer and sometimes shone on the stage. However, Xu Yangyang's mother did not allow her to enter the "messy" shops on Wangting Street.
She had never seen him perform live.
The evening study session for the second year of high school ended at 9:30. It was already very late when Zhu Changyu sent Xu Yangyang home. There were not many people on his way home, so he was easily targeted by the gangsters wandering on the street.
They robbed him, and Zhu Changyu didn't have the strength to fight them. He was outnumbered and couldn't escape, so he had to hand over his wallet. At the same time, he remembered the last time Xu Yangyang helped him drive away the thugs.
But this time, she couldn't make it in time, and the gangster asked him to take off the watch, which was a gift from his father for his birthday. Zhu Changyu refused and was beaten.
The corner of his mouth was scratched and hurting. Zhu Changyu sighed and tried to take off his watch, but a girl from the same school appeared out of nowhere. She stood in front of him and said in a trembling voice with a hint of tears, "What kind of ability do you have to bully others?"
Her hair was disheveled and very messy. Zhu Changyu couldn't see her face clearly. He only saw that the backpack she was carrying was not zipped up, and the words "Tong Yun" were written on the notebook inside.
When she looked up again, a man with only four fingers on his left hand came over. When the gangsters saw him, they withdrew their hands and walked away. Tong Yun followed the man and Zhu Changyu didn't even have time to say thank you to her solemnly.
A few days later, Xu Yangyang asked Zhu Changyu who he liked, saying that she heard from Fu Xingchuan that he had someone he liked. Zhu Changyu didn't know how to answer. She then said that all the boys in the class liked Tong Yun. Xu Yangyang happily asked him what he liked, and he said angrily that he also liked Tong Yun.
At first it was just a joke, but unexpectedly, Lin Luo's arrival made Tong Yun get closer to them.
Some time ago, Zhu Changyu's "liking" Tong Yun was just to make Xu Yangyang care about him, until Xu Yangyang and Fang Shao started dating. For the first time, he felt a little bit discouraged.
He tried to put the energy he had previously used on Xu Yangyang into studying and consulting Tong Yun, which did have some effect, and he didn't think about her as much anymore.
The school was so small that it was inevitable that they would meet. They even had to eat together. Seeing her being wronged by Fang Shao, he couldn't help but help her, but she yelled at him, "What are you doing? You don't have to mind my business."
That sentence really hurt Zhu Changyu's heart, and he didn't plan to care about her anymore.
Although he firmly believed that at the time, Xu Yangyang was hurt by Fang Shao, and he went to accompany her, but in fact, he felt very complicated behind her back. He said to himself: "Zhu Changyu, hold on a little longer. Maybe Xu Yangyang will look back at you. Mom said to try to make love fade away slowly."
During the summer vacation, Xu Yangyang was under the strict supervision of her mother and did not contact him much, but Zhu Changyu could see Tong Yun every day.
He had just asked his mother to buy him a small electric scooter. Wanting to repay her for saving him from the gangsters, he would take her to her job after tutoring every day.
Tong Yun is a good listener. She listens to everything he says and remembers it in her heart. Zhu Changyu regards her as a good friend and is happy to share Xu Yangyang with her.
That day, Xu Yangyang's birthday present disappeared. Zhu Changyu spent a long time searching for it on his daily commute home. He did find it, but because the pendant was made of porcelain, it shattered under impact. Remembering Xu Yangyang's promise to always wear it, he collected the pieces and took them home, keeping them in a drawer.
He hadn't thought of the words to tell her about this, so he planned to talk about it after they met at the beginning of the school year.
The extra classes were too tough, so they went to the amusement park to relax. Zhu Changyu really wanted to go with Xu Yangyang, but she couldn't come. He wasn't used to the pitch-black environment in the haunted house. Xu Yangyang's face appeared in his mind, and he heard Tong Yun's voice, "Don't be afraid, I'm here, hold my hand."
He felt a deep sense of security, the same one his mother gave him.
After regaining his sight, Zhu Changyu was even more grateful to Tong Yun. After sending her to the restaurant where she worked, he stopped at the door and looked inside for a long time.
It was a thin body carrying steaming food, walking back and forth, going up and down the stairs, and washing vegetables and dishes outside the store. Occasionally, a few people of the same age appeared at the door, and she would subconsciously lower her head.
Zhu Changyu felt uncomfortable looking at that scene.
He cut open the bellies of the piggy banks he'd kept for years, big and small, and poured out all the money. His mother saw what was wrong and asked him what was wrong. He said, "I have a friend whose family isn't well off. She works hard every day, and I want to help her...but isn't it a good idea to just give her money? Mom, what should I do?"
"I don't think she needs your money. She can earn it by working, so she definitely won't accept it. How about buying her some practical gifts? That way, she won't be hurt and will feel warmed. What do you think?"
Zhu Changyu nodded.
Before he could buy a gift for Tong Yun, Xu Yangyang got into trouble. He was horrified when he learned she was missing. After finding her, he was angry. After finding out why she was there, he felt distressed.
They were playing in the water together at the beach, and Xu Yangyang splashed water on him with a smile. It made him hallucinate a time when they were children and went to the water park together. He got lost, and Xu Yangyang pushed through the crowd to find him and splashed water on him. "You scared me, don't you know? You are not allowed to run around anymore. Stay by my side."
Zhu Changyu was very obedient and stuck to this statement for nearly twelve years.
But the more water was splashed, the more it fell into his clothes and hit his skin, feeling cold, and he felt tired and exhausted.
Back in Nan'an, in the hospital, Zhu Changyu told Xu Yangyang that her birthday present was lost. Before she could say anything, Qi Yao arrived.
Xu Yangyang looked at Qi Yao, and Zhu Changyu saw through her thoughts at a glance. He heard her say, "It's lost, so it's lost... You send Tong Yun back!"
Seeing Tong Yun from the side, she smiled at him faintly, and Zhu Changyu relaxed his brows.
As he walked away, he thought a lot and suddenly realized that Xu Yangyang had been pushing him away. She liked almost everyone around him, but she just didn't have feelings for him. He couldn't force that. Mom was right. Love fades, and it fades even faster if it's not reciprocated.
For her, there is no disappearance without love.
Zhu Changyu had completely given up hope. He turned around and said, "Xu Yangyang, goodbye!"
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