Chapter 48 Roasted Chestnuts: Is he quite important to you?
Li Baidong paused for a moment, thought for a while, and shook his head: "I don't think so, bro."
"As you know, although the junior high and senior high schools in Ningzhong are close to each other, students are absolutely prohibited from visiting each other's schools."
“I remember that our class happened to have the strictest dean of students in the whole school. He was very strict. Even if you secretly ate a chocolate bar, you had to read a self-criticism in front of the whole school. How could I dare to run around like that?”
Li Baidong spoke very seriously, and when he mentioned the dean's name, he even shrank his shoulders slightly in fear. This subtle and subconscious physical reaction was hard to fake; clearly, he was genuinely afraid of the teacher and dared not violate school rules.
Xing Lan thought for a moment, then asked, "Did you know a classmate back then? He was probably around your age, very thin, and a bit dark-skinned."
Li Baidong pondered for a moment, then looked up at Xing Lan and asked sincerely, "What's your name?"
Xing Lan paused for a moment, then said, "...I don't know."
Ningzhong High School has a rule that all students must wear name tags with their name and class engraved on them every day, while the junior high school students are not required to do so yet. So even though the kid sneaked off to see Xing Lan every day, Xing Lan really didn't know what his name was.
Li Baidong chuckled softly, then said to Xing Lan with a hint of distress, "Brother, I don't remember. It's been several years since I graduated from junior high school. I might remember names if I heard them, but I really can't recall names I don't know."
"Oh. Never mind then, let's go to sleep." Xing Lan sighed softly and slowly closed her eyes.
"Brother, are you looking for someone?" Li Baidong, who had been quite sleepy, was now somewhat awake. He burrowed under the covers, his dark eyes fixed on Xing Lan, and asked in an ambiguous tone, "Judging from your tone... he's quite important to you?"
Xing Lan neither nodded nor denied it. After a while, she said in a light tone, "He's just a kid I used to run into a lot at school. I was too busy when we graduated and forgot to ask his name. It's been so many years, I wonder how he's doing."
Listening to Xing Lan's words, which revealed an undisguised melancholy and worry, as well as a deep longing hidden within, Li Baidong suddenly felt a pang of jealousy for some reason.
His face gradually turned cold. He turned around and hugged Xing Lan in a domineering manner, saying unhappily, "He's just a little kid whose name I don't even know. Why do I keep thinking about him? From your description, he's thin and dark-skinned. He must not be good-looking. He likes to break school rules at such a young age. What kind of future can he have?"
Xing Lan felt Li Baidong's long arms tightly gripping his waist again, so tightly that he could hardly breathe. Turning his head, he saw that the person next to him had a serious expression and a sour tone, clearly jealous.
He looked at Li Baidong with amusement: "What nonsense are you talking about? I'm not thinking about him all the time."
"When I met him, he was only thirteen or fourteen years old. He was just a kid, and there was no way I could like him."
Li Baidong had brought this trouble upon himself that night. The jealousy he had just felt hadn't subsided when Xing Lan's resolute words, "It's impossible for you to like him," struck him hard.
But he was afraid Xing Lan would find out, and he couldn't show anything openly, so he could only lower his head and pretend that he was still angry about what had just happened.
Li Baidong was really tired today; he fell asleep without realizing it while he was still angry.
Even when he was asleep, he still held Xing Lan tightly in his arms, his strength remaining great, as if afraid that the person in his arms would run away in the middle of the night and abandon him to go find some random cat or dog.
Xing Lan gazed at the back of Li Baidong's head, which appeared exceptionally quiet in the night, and couldn't help but think to herself, "Sometimes this guy really does resemble that kid from back then."
The two were of similar age and had both transferred from other cities. Even though their voices were different, their accents were very similar.
Besides, the way they looked at him was also very similar—straight, dark, innocent, like the cute puppies he had seen at his neighbor's house when he was a child.
Although Li Baidong is clearly more handsome, charming, and likable in appearance, his outgoing and cheerful personality is completely different from that of the introverted and stubborn boy.
If a child back then had one-tenth as popular and well-liked as Li Baidong at school, they wouldn't have been bullied so badly by classmates and teachers, forced to fight every day, and the injuries on their face never seemed to heal.
Xing Lan pondered these thoughts for a while, and then gradually fell asleep.
After falling asleep, he had a dream in which the child from his memory was sitting quietly in a dark corner of the rooftop with one leg curled up, his expression obscured by shadows and not very clear.
In the blink of an eye, the child with tightly pursed lips in the corner suddenly disappeared, replaced by Li Baidong, whose eyes and brows were smiling. The boy was tall and slender, standing in the sunset, blending into the warm and bright golden sunlight.
Xing Lan walked towards him step by step, but just as she was about to reach him, she heard two repeated voices in her ears.
It was a young child speaking, and it was also Li Baidong speaking right in front of us.
The voice was faint and indistinct in the dream; the last four words of the sentence could be vaguely discerned:
"……I like you."
-
It's been raining for a week straight, the sky is gray and shrouded in a thin, persistent fog.
This kind of weather is perfect for staying home and catching up on sleep, or watching one long movie after another aimlessly with your lover. But Xing Lan was woken up early by her pre-set alarm clock, quickly dressed, and went out the door.
Li Baidong was still wearing his fluffy cartoon pajamas and slowly eating breakfast in the restaurant. He leaned over and asked Xing Lan, "Brother, where are you going today?"
"Today is my mother's birthday." Xing Lan lowered her eyes, carefully tied her scarf, and said softly, "I'm going to keep her company."
Upon hearing this, Li Baidong quickly stuffed the remaining half of the red bean bread into his mouth and mumbled, "Brother, shall I go with you?"
Xing Lan refused him, her brows furrowed, her tone unreadable: "No need. I can go by myself."
Li Baidong finally swallowed the bread completely, hurriedly ran to Xing Lan's side, grabbed his hand, and looked at him with bright eyes: "Brother, it's too cold outside."
Xing Lan didn't know what he meant by that. She glanced at him and said indifferently, "Then put on another layer of clothing."
Li Baidong shook his head and smiled at Xing Lan, saying, "It's so cold outside, it's lonely to go out alone. I'll go with you, it'll be warmer if we walk together."
He spoke in a very gentle tone, raised his hand, and gently smoothed away Xing Lan's furrowed brows: "You're going to see your mother now, don't frown, your aunt will worry."
Xing Lan looked up at him, and in this gloomy, freezing weather, she suddenly felt a warmth in her heart.
Although Xing Lan still didn't agree to go with Li Baidong, when Li Baidong followed him around and naturally got into the passenger seat of his car, he didn't kick him out.
Li Baidong fastened his seatbelt, and then, as if struck by a thought, suddenly turned to Xing Lan and asked, his bright eyes filled with anticipation, "Brother, am I the first person to sit in your passenger seat?"
Xing Lan rested her hand lightly on the steering wheel and answered quickly: "No."
Li Baidong was slightly disappointed: "Then who else has ridden it?"
Xing Lan thought for a moment: "A lot."
"Some former colleagues and leaders. My aunt's first child, my aunt's second child, my aunt's third child, my aunt, and my grandfather have all ridden in the car."
Li Baidong: "..."
There are so many people.
He gestured with his hand to a spot on the seat, then turned to Xing Lan tentatively and asked, "Brother, if I put up a sign here that says 'Boyfriend Only,' would you be angry?"
What is a "boyfriend-only seat"?
“This is it. Is it okay?” Li Baidong opened his phone and showed Xing Lan the cute product pictures on the website. The sticker on the sticker read “Baby’s Seat”.
Xing Lan nodded knowingly, then glanced at him expressionlessly: "Don't even think about it."
His tone was decisive, leaving no room for negotiation. Li Baidong reluctantly put his phone away, but he was still unwilling to give up.
He had an optimistic confidence that one day, Xing Lan would voluntarily put the sticker on his car, and he would cover Xing Lan's entire body with other nice, shiny stickers.
After starting the car, Xing Lan first went to the cake shop on the street corner to buy a blueberry-flavored cream cake, then went to the flower shop next door to buy a bouquet of flowers. She put the large, beautiful and fresh jasmine lilies into the trunk before driving towards the cemetery.
When Xing Lan's mother passed away, Xing Yi spent a lot of money on her funeral arrangements. The cemetery he chose was the best high-end cemetery in the area, known as a blessed land of mountains and rivers.
Xing Lan felt that her father was so hypocritical that it was laughable. He had treated her like trash while he was alive, but after he died, he did useless things to move himself. No matter how good or expensive a cemetery plot, which is sold exclusively to the rich, could not bring the person inside back to life.
Xing Lan visits his mother's cemetery every year, always alone.
Except for this year.
Li Baidong followed him at a respectful distance, very quietly, and silently helped him carry the things he was going to give to his mother.
Upon reaching a certain tomb, Xing Lan stopped and turned to Li Baidong, saying, "Give me the things."
Li Baidong nodded and obediently handed over the cake and bouquet he had been carrying all the way to Xing Lan.
Li Baidong was very tactful. He knew that Xing Lan might want to have a private conversation with his mother that he couldn't hear. Before Xing Lan could speak, he turned around and stood a short distance away waiting for him.
It was a cold and windy day. Li Baidong had forgotten his coat in the car and was only wearing a thin black shirt. He was so cold that he felt like coughing, but he forced himself to hold it in because he was worried about affecting Xing Lan's mood.
After rubbing his hands together and waiting for a few minutes, he caught a glimpse of a stall selling roasted chestnuts outside the cemetery.
Knowing that Xing Lan had rushed out this morning and hadn't had a proper breakfast, Li Baidong went over and bought a few kilograms, filling a large bag.
When Xing Lan finished visiting his mother and turned around, he saw Li Baidong standing not far away, waiting for him. As soon as their eyes met, Li Baidong smiled gently with his long, narrow eyes.
Against the biting winter wind, Li Baidong jogged towards Xing Lan, handed him the bag of roasted chestnuts he had just bought, and said with a smile, "Brother, they're freshly roasted, eat them while they're hot. I tried one for you, they're so sweet."
These chestnuts were originally roasted in their shells, but Li Baidong peeled them off for Xing Lan while they were waiting so that it would be easier for him to eat them.
Xing Lan paused for a moment, and didn't reach out to take the bag of chestnuts for a long time.
Seeing that he seemed distracted for some reason, Li Baidong fed him a piece of food directly to his lips with his hand.
The chestnuts are fragrant and soft, and the brown paper bag keeps them warm just right; they're still warm but not scalding.
Xing Lan lowered her eyes slightly, feeling the sweetness of the chestnut slowly melt in her mouth.
The uncle selling chestnuts wasn't selling roasted chestnuts at the entrance of this cemetery for the first time. He was very diligent, and had been running this small business for over ten years, setting up his stall almost every day.
But this was the first time in many years that Xing Lan had eaten steaming hot roasted chestnuts.
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