Chapter 11
Yang Duole was waiting at the school gate with his schoolbag on his back. The driver from the Lin family who came to pick him and Lin Qinhe had arrived for a while, but Lin Qinhe had not come out yet.
After waiting for about two or three minutes, Yang Duole finally saw Lin Qinhe coming.
"Brother Qinhe, what are you doing back in the classroom? The leader just wanted to find you to continue playing the piano." Yang Duole followed Lin Qinhe to the parking lot.
"Something fell into the classroom." Lin Qinhe said.
"What is so important?" Yang Duole asked subconsciously, but when he took a look at Lin Qinhe's expression, he knew that Lin Qinhe didn't want to answer him.
After all, they grew up together and knew each other too well. Although he and Lin Qinhe had a good relationship, he could never get Lin Qinhe to tell him about things she didn't want to say.
The two took a car back to the Lin family's villa. A tall woman in a black long skirt was waiting at the door. She had short black hair that reached her shoulders. When she saw the two get out of the car, she smiled faintly.
"Mom Luo!" Yang Duole rushed over and hugged Luo Zhengyin, his voice very sweet.
Luo Zhengyin is Lin Qinhe's mother, a famous pianist in Wenhua City. She first called out "Le Le", smiled and hugged Yang Duole, then looked at her son and asked, "Qinhe, why are you so late from school today?"
"Something delayed me." Lin Qinhe carried his and Yang Duole's schoolbags, changed his shoes and walked into the house.
Luo Zhengyin sighed slightly. Apart from being a good piano player like her, her son's personality was more like his father. He was cold and distant to most people, and was never warm even to his relatives.
She didn't ask any more questions and said, "Let's eat first."
There was a rich meal on the table, naturally it was cooked by the nanny at home. Luo Zhengyin always took good care of her hands.
After the three of them sat down, Yang Duole talked excitedly to Luo Zhengyin about school matters while eating. Luo Zhengyin responded with a smile, while Lin Qinhe hardly spoke while eating.
In fact, in the Lin family, people really don't talk while eating. Lin Qinhe's grandfather, Lin Weiliang, was once the secretary of the Wenhua Municipal Party Committee. The old man has an old-fashioned personality and strict family traditions. The eldest son, Lin Zeqiu, is the current secretary-general of the Provincial Party Committee, and the youngest son, Lin Zeshi, founded the Ruize Group, which mainly engages in real estate.
Lin Zeshi is Luo Zhengyin's husband, but Lin Zeshi usually works outside the city and rarely goes home.
"Le Le, you have been promoted to Class 1 now. Are you sitting next to Qin He?" Luo Zhengyin asked.
Yang Duole was in the same class with Lin Qinhe from kindergarten to junior high school, but after Wenhua No. 1 Middle School divided the classes according to academic rankings, the two were no longer in the same class. In the past year, Yang Duole worked hard to study, and Lin Qinhe also tutored him a lot, and they finally became classmates again in the second year of high school.
Ever since the final exam results came out, Yang Duole has been talking about sitting next to Lin Qinhe after school starts.
Yang Duole curled his lips, glanced at Lin Qinhe beside him, and said to Luo Zhengyin in a complaining and coquettish tone: "Mother Luo, Brother Qinhe has a different deskmate."
Luo Zhengyin was a little surprised. She knew that Lin Qinhe had never had a deskmate because he didn't like getting too close to people or having physical contact. Even though she was his mother, the two of them would never be as intimate as she and Yang Duole.
"Is it an old classmate?" Luo Zhengyin couldn't think of anyone other than Yang Duole who Lin Qinhe would accept to sit next to him.
Yang Duole said, "No, didn't you and Uncle Lin sponsor the remote live broadcast class in Qingshui County? Now the number one student in Qingshui County has come to our class, and the head teacher asked the new student to sit next to Brother Qinhe."
Luo Zhengyin was slightly stunned. In addition to the government's matchmaking, Qingshui County's remote live classroom was indeed funded by their Lin family, but she did not know the specific details of the funding.
She knew that Yang Duole wanted to sit next to Lin Qinhe, so she said, "Aren't you free to choose your deskmate in your class? Next time when you change seats, Lele, you can just switch with that new classmate."
Lin Qinhe, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly said, "No need."
Luo Zhengyin and Yang Duole were both stunned.
Yang Duole was a little angry and said sullenly, "Don't you think Tao Xi hates me a little? I don't want you to be friends with him."
He could clearly feel Tao Xi's hostility towards him, although he didn't know why, but he had never been one of those people who disliked him, and he would never like him. He even had to hate him more to feel balanced, and he also subconsciously had an inexplicable wariness towards Tao Xi.
Lin Qinhe is his best friend. If he becomes friends with Tao Xi, he will feel betrayed.
Luo Zhengyin guessed that Tao Xi was Lin Qinhe's deskmate, but she couldn't intervene in the conflict between the children, so she didn't say anything.
Lin Qinhe put down his chopsticks and said in a cold voice: "Le Le, not everyone will do as you wish."
The atmosphere in the restaurant froze for a moment.
Luo Zhengyin rarely heard Lin Qinhe say such harsh words to Yang Duole. She always treated Yang Duole as her own child, and subtly made Lin Qinhe love Yang Duole as much as she did.
She had no choice but to ease the atmosphere and said, "Let's not talk about this, Lele, I bought the new game you mentioned last time for you. It has been installed in the game console. Go play it with Qinhe later."
There is a special entertainment room at home where you can watch movies and play games. Last year, we bought a complete set of VR gaming equipment for Yang Duole’s birthday, although Yang Duole got bored after playing it a few times.
"I don't really want to play anymore, Mom Luo, I'm going to take a nap." Yang Duole put down his chopsticks and left the restaurant, obviously still sulking.
But Luo Zhengyin was not too worried. The child's temper came and went quickly, and he could be coaxed into submission with just a few words.
Lin Qinhe also stood up, but was stopped by Luo Zhengyin: "Qinhe, come and talk to your mother."
Luo Zhengyin seldom calls herself "mother" in front of Lin Qinhe. If she does, it's usually with a hint of pleading in it.
Lin Qinhe looked down at his mother and did not refuse: "Okay."
The mother and son came to a studio on the second floor. The studio was very large, but there were no painting tools. There were only many paintings hanging on the wall, and most of them were obviously from the same person.
Luo Zhengyin held a cup of coffee and walked to a painting. After looking at it for a while, he smiled and said, "Today, when I heard Lele talking about Qingshui County, I suddenly remembered this painting. I wonder if the real scene there will be as beautiful as in the painting."
It was an oil painting. In the painting, a clear stream meandered in a valley. Peach blossoms by the stream were as beautiful as rosy clouds and brocade. Peach blossoms on the stream followed the flowing water. On the hillside, a farmhouse with black tiles and white walls was emitting curls of smoke. The whole painting was quiet and peaceful. In the lower right corner of the painting, there was a small word "穗".
"You can go and take a look." Lin Qinhe said indifferently. He was also looking at the painting, but seemed to be looking at something else through the painting.
Luo Zhengyin sighed slightly, his expression a little gloomy, walked away a few steps to look at other paintings, and talked about business: "Lele's father came back recently, so Lele is not in a very good mood. He is still a child at heart, far less mature than you, so don't get angry with him."
Lin Qinhe was silent for a while, then asked, "How many days has Uncle Yang been back?"
Luo Zhengyin frowned, as if he didn't want to mention this person, and said coldly: "It's been two or three days, so I asked you to bring Lele back. If they meet, they will quarrel again, and it will also make Uncle Fang's family restless."
Yang Duole grew up in the home of his maternal grandfather Fang Zuqing and Luo Zhengyin. His father Yang Zhengming was engaged in medical business. He was busy with his career in his early years and hardly took care of Yang Duole. In recent years, he suddenly wanted to have a good relationship with his son, so he went to Yang Duole's grandfather's house every now and then. Only he never dared to come to Luo Zhengyin's place.
"You don't know, last time Yang Zhengming brought back a new lover who looked like...well, Lele saw it anyway, and Lele was angry for a long time."
Disgust flashed across Luo Zhengyin's eyes, and he lowered his head to take a sip of coffee.
Lin Qinhe knew what his mother had not said. Yang Zhengming was decadent and confused for two years after Fang Sui's death. He started his career only after being awakened by Fang Zuqing's scolding. Although he has not been married for so many years, he has had many lovers in recent years, and each of them has the shadow of Fang Sui.
After all, it was a matter of the previous generation, so Lin Qinhe couldn't say anything.
Luo Zhengyin did not continue the topic. She walked to a children's painting, looked at it for a while and said with a smile: "You and Lele both learned to paint when you were young, but it was a pity that you were always impatient. Lele wanted to learn but could never paint well, so he gave up in the end. In this respect, he is really unlike his mother."
At the end of his words, Luo Zhengyin's tone became heavier and his eyes looked far away.
Lin Qinhe looked at the painting that Yang Duole had drawn when he was eight years old. In the painting, there was a child holding his father and mother’s hands. The mother had long black hair and was holding a paintbrush in her hand. All three of them had happy smiling faces.
He walked to the painting of peach blossoms and flowing water, looked at it and said, "Not everyone has to have her shadow. I am not like that, and neither is Lele."
Just like this villa, if he wasn't allergic to pollen, the garden would be full of the woman's favorite white roses.
Luo Zhengyin was stunned and didn't speak for a long time.
Tao Xi left the school in the afternoon and went into a bookstore near the school to buy English listening tapes because Lin Qinhe asked him to go back and practice English listening.
Taoxi has a tape recorder that he bought when he was in the first grade of junior high school. The buttons are not very responsive anymore, but it can still be used.
However, he searched the bookstore for a long time but couldn't find any audiobooks with tapes. Until the bookstore owner asked him, "Student, what are you looking for?"
"I want to buy some tapes for high school English listening training," said Tao Xi.
The bookstore owner was a middle-aged man in his early 40s wearing a pair of plastic slippers. He looked surprised and asked, "Who still uses tapes to listen to English listening?"
Tao Xi was stunned. What else could he use if not tapes?
The boss glanced at Tao Xi's school uniform and said, "Don't you ban electronic devices at Wenhua No. 1 Middle School? They all use mobile phones or tablets and can listen to music anytime. Tapes are so inconvenient."
He took out an English listening book from the bookshelf and pointed it to Tao Xi: "When you buy the book, it will give you a download link and QR code for the audio file. You can scan it with your phone and download it to listen."
Tao Xi thought of the wireless headphones that Lin Qinhe often wore, and said at a loss: "Okay, I'll go look at other teaching materials first."
He was about to turn around and leave, but his boss stopped him and said, "Wait a minute, I'll go look in the warehouse, maybe I can find some tapes that were piled up before."
The boss searched for a long time and finally found the listening tapes and books that had not been sold out several years ago. He patted the dust off them and said with a smile: "Actually, I also think that tapes are better. Students will definitely want to play games and chat on their phones. Who knows if they are listening to English or music?"
Tao Xi nodded and was about to take out the money to buy it, but the boss waved his hand and said, "I'm giving it to you. It was going to be thrown away anyway."
Tao Xi didn't want to take it for free. The two of them pushed it back several times. Finally, Tao Xi bought some other teaching supplementary books from the bookstore before accepting the free listening book and tape.
He returned to the empty dormitory and took out the old-fashioned tape recorder. He had saved up his breakfast money for a long time to buy this tape recorder. After buying it, he carefully put a sticker on it and wrote his name on it, for fear that someone would take it away. This was the only electronic device he had besides his electronic watch.
After pressing the power button several times, the recorder slowly started to work. He put the newly bought tape in, plugged in a pair of broken headphones, and breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the sound coming out.
After doing English listening for an hour, Tao Xi followed the key points of each subject marked by Lin Qinhe in the morning and did the more difficult questions in the newly bought teaching supplementary book. He circled the question numbers for the ones he didn't understand, then folded the pages and waited to ask Lin Qinhe questions during the lunch break tomorrow.
When Tao Xi thought that Lin Qinhe would tutor him the next day at noon, he couldn't help but lie on the table and laugh softly. There was obviously no one in the dormitory, but he seemed afraid of being heard.
Just like when he was a child, Guo Ping would occasionally bring Tao Le lollipops when she came back from town, and he would sometimes get one, but he would never eat it right away like Tao Le did. He would always keep it in his pocket for a long time, and would quietly take it out from time to time to look at it and smell it, for fear of being seen by Tao Le. He would only eat it when the candy wrapper was so sticky that it was almost impossible to tear it off.
Apart from going out to buy a hand-pulled pancake for dinner at night, Tao Xi spent the entire afternoon and evening studying in the dormitory. Before going to bed at night, he even listened to Nine Pounds and Fifteen with half a headphone on.
He thought that he would have no dreams after studying all day, but he had a dream at night. He dreamed that he was sitting in the classroom during the day and watching Lin Qinhe next to him marking papers. Suddenly, Lin Qinhe's phone vibrated. He answered the call and said after a while: "Okay, I'll take Taoxi home later."
Then they took a bus home together. The bus drove for a long time. Tao Xi was wondering why they hadn't arrived yet when the bus finally stopped. He and Lin Qinhe got off and saw that it was not Lin Qinhe's home, but the Qingshui River in Taoxi Bay.
Peach blossoms are in full bloom in the valley in spring, there are countless peach blossoms on the stream, and orioles on the flowers.
He invited Lin Qinhe to his home halfway up the mountain, but Lin Qinhe frowned and said, "I don't like it here." Then he turned and left.
He chased after her with all his might, shouting, "What if I cut down the peach tree?", but he was like a ghost walking on a wall and couldn't catch up with her.
After waking up, Tao Xi felt like he had run 200 miles and drank several sips of water.
The author has something to say:
Don't worry, it will be sweet.
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