Chapter 20
The president of Xiao Tao Comics Club was anxiously waiting in the morning to exchange works with the club's only reader. The reader arrived neither early nor late, and still walked into the classroom with a stern face, pulled out a chair and sat down, put on headphones and read a book, the whole set of actions seemed to be engraved in his DNA.
Tao Xi hesitated and hesitated for a long time, but still couldn't help but move closer, stretched out her two index fingers and made a small square, and asked mysteriously: "How is it?" Her tone sounded like that of gangsters meeting in the middle of the night.
Lin Qinhe took off one of his headphones, his eyelashes drooped, he glanced at Tao Xi's fingers, then looked at Tao Xi's blinking eyes, and said indifferently: "What's going on?"
Tao Xi paused while drawing a square with his fingers. Could it be that he had secretly put the comic book into Lin Qinhe's schoolbag yesterday, and Lin Qinhe didn't see it when he returned home?
Or have you never opened the schoolbag at all?
He was anxious, so he took the schoolbag that Lin Qinhe had placed behind the chair and looked through it with his head down. The more he searched, the more anxious he became, like a thief who opened the bag and found nothing valuable inside.
“…” Lin Qinhe frowned slightly, wanting to say something, but only pursed his lips.
"How come it's missing?" There weren't many things in the bag. Tao Xi searched for a while but didn't see any trace of the comics. He looked as if he had lost his parents.
He put his head into the bag again and carefully checked the bottom of Lin Qinhe's schoolbag.
“There’s no hole.”
Tao Xi was just about to continue checking whether it was stuck in the book when he suddenly heard a very low laugh. He immediately looked up at Lin Qinhe.
This time he was caught, Lin Qinhe still had a cold face, and the smile on the corner of his mouth disappeared just in the last microsecond.
Tao Xi narrowed her eyes and said firmly: "You are kidding me."
Lin Qinhe took the bag from Tao Xi's arms, raised his eyebrows, and said, "Is there one?"
Tao Xi noticed that Lin Qinhe seemed to be in a good mood today, so he decided not to care about it. He leaned over to look at Lin Qinhe, his long eyelashes catching the morning light coming in from the door, and asked stealthily, "So what's going on?"
And by the way, he made up a reason for his behavior: "Our art club is going to change, and I plan to switch to drawing comics. Let me show you how it goes."
To be honest, he was a little nervous not because he was afraid that his painting would not be good, but because he was afraid that Lin Qinhe would find it annoying.
After all, Lin Qinhe always said that he was wasting time doing boring things.
Lin Qinhe lowered his head to look at the English novel that he had only read a few pages last night. After turning a page, he commented nonchalantly, "It's okay."
Tao Xi breathed a sigh of relief. It was good enough that Lin Qinhe didn't say no.
He was satisfied, took out the test paper that Lin Qinhe had stuffed into his pocket last night, and continued to work on the questions. Halfway through, he poked Lin Qinhe with his pen through his school uniform and said, "I don't know how to do this question."
Lin Qinhe seemed to be in a really good mood today. He briefly told him his solution to the problem, and even said, for the first time, "Bring out the physics problem from yesterday."
Tao Xi was stunned for a moment before he realized that Lin Qinhe was referring to the question that he had asked Lin Qinhe last night but he had said he "couldn't do it". He shook his head and said, "Thank you, but no thanks. I asked Huang Qing this morning and she knew how to do it."
Then Tao Xi saw Lin Qinhe's face change from sunny to cloudy to snowstorm.
Tao Xi thought that Lin Qinhe might not be as indifferent to his grades as he seemed. He also had a deep prejudice against the runner-up in the grade who was right behind him.
He thought about it and said sympathetically, "I'm sure you can do that question, too."
Amidst the mountain of homework, Tao Xi took out a little time every day to draw small cartoons, and persisted in doing so for more than a week.
He thought it was very simple at first, but later he had no idea what to draw, so he went to the library to borrow a copy of "The Latest Collection of Humorous Stories". He didn't notice that the book was published in 2002.
One night after school, Yang Duole and Lin Qinhe got on the Lin family's car to go back home. Not long after they sat down, Yang Duole saw Lin Qinhe open his schoolbag and look for something in it.
"Did you drop something in the classroom?" Yang Duole asked.
"No."
Yang Duole leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes to rest. He had been feeling a little listless all day and planned to take a short nap in the car.
But he suddenly heard a very low laugh. Yang Duole quickly opened his eyes and looked to the side. Under the dim car lights, Lin Qinhe still had no expression on his face.
Yang Duole asked in confusion: "What are you laughing at?"
"nothing."
Yang Duole said "Oh" and continued to close his eyes and sleep.
Lin Qinhe opened the paper in his hand again. The protagonist of today's four-frame comic was a peach-shaped gummy candy.
The first jelly bean was walking on the street, the second was still walking, the third was still walking, and the fourth jelly bean bent down and said, "My feet are so soft."
After several days of this, it was impossible for Yang Duole not to notice something was wrong. One time, he pretended to sleep in the car and squinted his eyes to see Lin Qinhe taking out a piece of paper from his schoolbag and reading it. After reading it, he carefully folded it up and put it into the book and put it back into the schoolbag. He remained calm and unmoved from beginning to end.
Yang Duole couldn't help but wonder if Lin Qinhe had a tendency to fall in love too early, but he killed the thought as soon as it came to his mind.
It's absolutely impossible. Except for Qiao Yitong, the youngest daughter of the Qiao family, a family friend of the Lin family, Lin Qinhe has almost no female friends. So many girls have pursued Lin Qinhe over the years, but none of them succeeded.
He was extremely curious, but he didn't dare to secretly look through Lin Qinhe's schoolbag. Lin Qinhe had a strong control over his personal belongings. No one, including him and Luo Zhengyin, could touch Lin Qinhe's things without permission, whether it was his schoolbag or the furnishings in the room.
Yang Duole recalled that during the summer vacation, he was doing his homework in Lin Qinhe's room and saw a wooden box in the bookcase. The box had been there for a long time and had always been locked, but it was not locked at that time and seemed to have just been opened by Lin Qinhe.
Yang Duole quietly opened the box while Lin Qinhe was out and found that there were dozens of letters, a rolled-up painting, and a photocopy of a Chinese composition.
Because the copy of the composition was placed on the top, he recognized it at a glance. It was one of the full-score compositions printed out by the first-year Chinese language group after the final exam of the first year of high school. At that time, the Chinese teacher in his class said that this composition was from Qingshui County No. 1 Middle School and the title was "Man Chasing the Moon". Yang Duole was deeply impressed because his female deskmate cried after reading it.
When Yang Duole wanted to continue reading the letter, Lin Qinhe called out his full name with a sullen face.
Lin Qinhe got very angry that time, and Yang Duole was so scared that he didn't dare to go to Lin Qinhe's room to do his homework for several days.
In addition to studying and serializing comics, Tao Xi was also thinking about making money to buy a mobile phone. He finally seized the business opportunity after returning to the dormitory one night.
"Xi Da, thank you very much. I really can't finish painting. You don't know how many paintings Sister Lei arranged during the four-day National Day holiday. My hands are getting Parkinson's from painting, and my retina is about to detach!" Pan Yan wiped tears with his paint-stained hands.
Pan Yan's art teacher Jiang Lei is a well-known female devil in the Art Department of Wenhua No. 1 Middle School. She has a hot temper and a ruthless style. If anyone dares to delay handing in homework, she can yell at that person for an hour without taking a breath.
"I really don't have time." Tao Xi refused bluntly. He hadn't finished the test paper Zhou Qiang stuffed in his hand, nor had he drawn the cartoon for tomorrow's day.
Pan Yan begged Tao Xi for a long time but Tao Xi was unmoved. Pan Yan had no choice but to think of his National Day travel plan and reluctantly said, "How about this, Xi Da, I'll pay you to draw? 100 yuan per picture, just draw five for me!"
Tao Xi's ears twitched, but her expression didn't reveal any flaws. She frowned and said hesitantly, "This is not good. What if I can't imitate your painting and your teacher finds out?"
Pan Yan noticed a little looseness and quickly said, "I still don't believe in your painting skills? Please be kind and I will bring you some delicious food when I return from this trip!"
Tao Xi hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and said, "Forget it. I have too much homework and I don't think I will have enough time."
Pan Yan gritted his teeth and said, "I'll give you 200 for each. You don't have to draw too well. Just draw according to my rubbish level!"
"make a deal."
Tao Xi snapped his fingers and made the decision with satisfaction.
The day before the National Day holiday, the whole class was frantically finishing their National Day homework, hoping to squeeze out more holiday time.
Bi Chengfei and his deskmate Hu Tong were arguing again. After the argument, they started a cold war. Then he turned to harass Tao Xi: "Brother Xi, are you going out to play during this holiday? My aunt wants to take me to Korea to watch her idol's concert."
Tao Xi was busy doing his National Day homework. Hearing this, he didn't even raise his head and said, "No, I won't play."
He didn't want to take a holiday at all because he wouldn't be able to see Lin Qinhe during the holiday. He didn't have a cell phone yet, so taking a holiday would mean losing contact with the world.
Tao Xi glanced at Lin Qinhe standing beside her, somewhat curious about how Lin Qinhe would arrange it, and asked casually, "Classmate, are you going out to play?"
Bi Chengfei interrupted and said, "I know! I heard from Yakult that he is going to Japan with the academic god. I am so envious." He didn't want to accompany Bi Aoxue to Korea to work as a cheerleader at all.
Tao Xi lowered her eyelashes, turned the pen around, and said dryly: "It's only four days, you still have time to go abroad?"
He also wanted to go to Japan with Lin Qinhe, but he was lucky enough to have enough money to travel around Wenhua City.
Bi Chengfei said: "Japan and South Korea are both very close, so I can make it in time, but I don't have much time to do my homework. Brother Xi, it would be great if you had a cell phone. I could take pictures of delicious food for you, and in exchange, you could take pictures of your homework for me to copy."
Tao Xi was so annoyed that she decided not to add Bi Chengfei as a friend even after buying a mobile phone.
He threw away his pen and fell asleep on the desk, his head resting on his arms and his face facing the other side.
Bi Chengfei noticed that Tao Xi seemed unhappy, and he rolled his eyes and said flatteringly: "Brother Xi, don't worry, I brought you a gift from Korea!"
"Don't disturb my sleep." Tao Xi said with his eyes closed.
Bi Chengfei reached out to rub Tao Xi's head, but just as he put his paw on it, he was glanced at by Lin Qinhe.
He subconsciously retracted his claws and turned back obediently, feeling as embarrassed as if he had secretly petted the neighbor's cat and was glared at by the neighbor.
During the four-day National Day holiday, Tao Xi was almost the only one living in the entire dormitory building. Every time he went out to eat, he would stare at the only dormitory manager who stayed behind to look after him.
Taoxi finished all the homework in the previous two days, from seven o'clock to eleven o'clock at night, with almost no rest except for eating and taking a shower.
Starting from the third day, he got up at seven o'clock again and began to paint for Pan Yan, three still life sketches and two figure sketches.
If it was just simple painting, it wouldn't be a difficult task for Tao Xi, but he also had to imitate Pan Yan's paintings. Others carved flowers out of shit, but he had to mix shit with flowers. It felt like eating a fly.
He only finished three paintings, from sunrise to moonrise. Looking at these three paintings, Tao Xi felt that he was going to have Parkinson's disease in his hands and retinal detachment in his eyes.
On the last day of vacation, he finished the last two paintings and his hands were so sore that he could hardly hold the pen.
"200 yuan is really too little." Tao Xi gritted his teeth.
He didn't know that many years later, when he remembered that he only sold it for 200 yuan, he would wish that the stingy Pan Yan would pay him 2 million yuan in return.
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