0021 021 About to become an adult
September was almost over, and Qi Shuyao was finally able to accept the news that Song Yusheng had left. She was gone, Su Shaojin was gone, all her close friends had left, and the only fun she had left at school was exchanging a few words with Yang Xun.
Xu Chaoyi contacted her a few more times after that, but they never met again. Soon after, he went abroad again and may never come back.
She acknowledged her feelings for Qi Yu and also for Xu Chaoyi. Perhaps describing youthful feelings directly as love is somewhat pale, but it cannot be completely denied. The love of her youth was simply liking, just you and me.
At least that's how she is.
In class, after a monthly exam, the homeroom teacher rearranged the seats. Qi Shuyao, who is over 1.7 meters tall and always sits in the back rows of the class, went directly to the last row this time and chose a seat by the window. The window was opened at a small angle, and the air carrying the scent of leaves blew in.
The classroom was filled with the creaking of desks and chairs being pushed around, which drowned out the sound of someone sitting down next to her. When the noise subsided, Qi Shuyao turned around and saw Qin Zhuohan sitting next to her, tilting his head slightly to feel the early autumn breeze together.
Why did you sit down here too?
She was somewhat surprised. Although Qi Yu had thoroughly investigated the other person because he took a detour to go home with her, she hadn't interfered with their relationship afterward. She just felt a little guilty.
Qin Zhuohan looked thin and was about the same height as Qi Yu. Because his family had been doctors for generations, he always carried the smell of a hospital, which made him stand out in this classroom full of the corrupt smell of officialdom.
But he has always been a favorite among the teachers. He studies diligently and is not domineering. Many teachers at his family's private hospital try their best to get close to him, so why would they arrange him in the last row?
"This time, everyone was arranged according to height. This is our fate."
Qi Shuyao glanced ahead at the students, whose academic levels were uneven, and smiled without calling him out on his nonsense.
September and October are the most comfortable months in Yangcheng. The sweltering heat has subsided, and the autumn winds haven't yet carried large grains of sand. However, Qi Shuyao didn't expect that such a cool breeze could make her drowsy. She propped her left hand on the side of her face, and soon her face slid down, hitting her head hard in the air. Her heart was pounding wildly, and she was completely stunned.
Qin Zhuohan caught a glimpse of this scene out of the corner of his eye, and he couldn't stop smiling. He kept looking at the blackboard while pursing his lips and chuckling to himself.
A little while later, the sun came out again, shining on the side of the girl who had fallen asleep on her stomach. She was still lying face down towards the window, and the tip of her small, upturned nose was almost transparent in the sunlight.
The boy quietly took out his folder, stretched out his arm, and placed it in front of the girl's head, cleverly blocking the sunlight from shining on her face.
The bell rang, and the boy in front of me suddenly pushed his chair back, dribbled the ball, and ran out, knocking the clip over. Just as it was about to hit the girl's head, a slender hand caught it and put it back in its original position.
Qi Shuyao was awakened by the noisy surroundings. She rubbed her sleepy eyes and got up, seemingly unaware of the clip blocking the sunlight in front of her. She simply hugged her shoulders, leaned back in the chair, rubbed her wrinkled face, and stared blankly.
The school bell rang again, and a group of people rushed back to their seats. She turned her head and saw her deskmate looking at her, and returned a smile.
Everyone endured the most restless Friday afternoon together, and scattered like lightning after hearing the school bell ring.
Qi Shuyao returned home with her schoolbag and was surprised to see Qi Yu in the living room. There was a tea set on the table, but no one was there.
She quickly said that the parent-teacher meeting would be at 3 p.m. next Monday and then ran upstairs.
Early Monday morning, just as dawn was breaking, sleepy reporters flocked from all directions to the intersection 500 meters outside the Yangcheng toll gate of the Haiyang Expressway. Ninety minutes earlier, a truck coming from Shangzhou had overturned there, spilling fresh vegetables from its cargo box onto the ground. A flock of free-range sheep nearby smelled the odor and came over to nibble and chew on the vegetables, knocking over a row of cardboard boxes. A frozen carcass rolled out of one of the boxes, startling the farmer who had come to look for his sheep, who immediately called the police.
This vehicle is a dedicated transport vehicle for Lizhuang Hotel. Previously, it cooperated with Song's Logistics. After the Song family went bankrupt, Cheng's Group directly took over a fleet of vehicles. Lizhuang Hotel is where Cheng Jie, the real estate tycoon of Jingyang, first made his fortune. It is also the place where he entertains his distinguished guests. The hotel's reputation is that all the ingredients for its catering are personally selected and approved by Mr. Cheng.
The overwhelming news reports and netizens on the internet put Mr. Cheng in a very difficult position. Some wanted the truth, some were just watching the drama, and some were kicking him while he was down. The situation gradually spiraled out of his control as a businessman. With the help of his bodyguards, he evaded the relentless reporters and ran to Qi Yu's office at the land management office.
"Oh, Mr. Cheng, you've arrived just in time. The land bidding is about to begin. You and the representatives from the other companies should go together."
"Secretary, Secretary Qi, I don't want this land anymore. I beg you to save me. I really didn't know anything about that corpse. If you help me get through this, I'll give you anything after that."
“Mr. Cheng, you’ve come to the wrong place. I’m not a member of the police, how could I do anything here? Besides, the car has passed through so many places along the way, it could have been tampered with anywhere. The investigation results aren’t out yet, why are you panicking like this?”
Qi Yu's composure and indifference finally brought a moment of clarity to Boss Cheng's confused mind. He raised a trembling finger and pointed at Qi Yu.
"You, it's you..."
Bang! The office door was opened, and the police took Boss Cheng away. Seeing Qi Yu present, they also asked him to go to the station for questioning.
Qi Shuyao stood at the school gate, leaning against a stone pillar. On the surface, nothing seemed amiss, but inside, her mind was in turmoil. Today, all the senior classes were having parent-teacher meetings, and parents had been arriving at the school since the afternoon. Now, with only five minutes left until three o'clock, she hadn't even seen Qi Yu's shadow.
He wasn't always available to attend parent-teacher conferences for her, but he would always let her know in advance. Now, there's no word from him, and he's nowhere to be seen. Everyone who passes by the school gate witnessed the moment she was abandoned.
Forget about her image, Qi Shuyao squatted down on the ground, picked up a twig and poked it into the ground. The so-called noble school looked spotless, but you could only see the dust that was deeply embedded in the ground when you pressed yourself against it.
A tear fell vertically, striking the crack in the ground, quickly seeping into the earth, and silently disappearing into the world.
Before she was filled with a huge emptiness and loss, a pair of leather-shoe-clad feet ran towards her. Following the trouser leg, she saw Qi Yu's slightly disheveled hair and his collar turned up. He was breathing heavily and reached out to pull her up, leading her inside.
After squatting for a while, Qi Shuyao's vision went completely black when she stood up, and she could only follow behind in small steps. When her vision cleared, the two of them had already reached the front of the teaching building. The school never allowed students to stay near the classrooms when holding parent-teacher meetings, so they chatted idly on the playground behind the school.
Qi Yu's figure disappeared through the gate, but the panting and the touch on her hand pulled her back to reality, making her previous sorrowful state seem even more pretentious and speechless. Qi Shuyao walked towards the playground with her hands in her pockets, close to the wall, wanting to find a secluded place to slap herself twice.
"Shu Yao! Come here quickly!"
Across from the basketball hoop, a few friends waved for her to come over; it was a shady spot where she wouldn't get any sun.
She ran over quickly, and Qin Zhuohan, who was sitting on the outside, stood up and made room for her.
Qi Shuyao's class was on the second floor. When Qi Yu ran up, the parent-teacher meeting had already started. He ran in through the back door, bent over, and went to the last row by the window.
The man beside him saw him, smiled, nodded, and greeted him quietly.
"Mr. Qi."
Qi Yu recognized him; Qin Jiangzhi was the director of Yangcheng Mingren Private Hospital. He lived in the west of the city, but his son always took a detour to the northern suburbs to find Qi Shuyao. He never gave their family a friendly look, but today, his respectful "Mr. Qi" earned him a lot of goodwill.
As usual, the homeroom teacher rambled on with pleasantries. Half of the parents in the audience were not the students' immediate family members, and she couldn't afford to offend the other half. No one cared about grades or further education; most of them went directly to study abroad.
After explaining the arrangements according to the outline, the meeting ended. She walked to the last row, and neither of the two parents' fathers showed any intention of leaving. The homeroom teacher hesitated and didn't know how to speak.
Qin Jiangzhi stood up first, nodded to the teacher, greeted Qi Yu, and then turned to leave.
The homeroom teacher stepped forward and stood next to Qi Yu, speaking softly.
“Mr. Qi, Yao Yao and Qin Zhuohan have been getting quite close lately, and there have been quite a few little interactions between them in class, but from what I’ve observed, they haven’t gone beyond the scope of friendship.”
"Who arranged for them to sit together?"
"It wasn't arranged. Yao Yao chose this seat first, and then Qin Zhuohan just sat down here. You know my situation, so it's not really something to say..."
"It's alright. Birth, aging, sickness, and death are all major events in life, and no one can escape them."
"So, what do you think about Yao Yao at school...?"
"Don't worry about it too much, it's just about making friends."
The homeroom teacher was sent away, but Qi Yu was still sitting in Qi Shuyao's seat, flipping through the test papers she had put in her drawer. The girl was very serious about her studies; her test papers were neatly written, with many corrections and annotations. The test papers were all neatly pressed together, without even any creases or curled edges. Some blank spaces were filled with small cartoons, or little butterflies and birds.
He ran his fingers over the traces of his absence, and the warmth seeped through the paper into his body, bringing everything to life. Butterflies fluttered their wings and flew toward him.
Behind the building, on the playground, a few people were huddled under the basketball hoop, sharing two bags of potato chips. Qi Shuyao and a female classmate were looking down at the bow on her stockings, listening to the gossip above them.
"Didn't Xiao Er's father have an illegitimate child outside? His mother took the child home, and the mistress was sent away. Now another mistress has appeared, and she's pregnant too. But it turns out it's a girl, and they're letting her have the baby."
"His family doesn't like girls, so they had an abortion."
"Xiao Er has an older sister, but his mother is reluctant to let her daughter marry into an arranged marriage. She probably wants to groom a daughter who is not her own to marry into the family."
"By the time the kids who are getting pregnant now are old enough to get married, their parents will probably be too old to work, and the company will have been handed over to someone else long ago. What power will they have left?"
“Xiao Er can’t agree to that. He didn’t even go to university and went straight to work for the company. Isn’t it all for that little bit of family property?”
"Old Xiao is in the hospital, but he's fine, just his leg isn't very good."
"To be able to father an illegitimate child with this body, he's still going strong for his age."
Qi Shuyao interjected, took a chip from the bag and put it in her mouth, then casually handed the rest to Qin Zhuohan beside her.
She turned her head and saw Qi Yu standing not far away, watching her.
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