Chapter 30
Being picked up by parents after school was one of the things Tao Xi longed for since he was a child, especially when it suddenly rained heavily and he didn't bring an umbrella. He watched his classmates being picked up by their parents one by one, and the colorful umbrellas blocked the chattering of the children and the nagging of the parents.
At first he would wait to see if Guo Ping would come to pick him up, but after being disappointed again and again, he stopped waiting and rushed into the rain with his head covered, ran home along the muddy mountain road, changed his clothes, washed clothes, and boiled hot water for his family to take a bath in the evening. After finishing everything, he started to do his homework. When he grew up, he had to cook for himself.
So when Tao Xi finished her painting lessons and saw Lin Qinhe appear in the living room of the Qiao family, the joy that came over him was like a piece of dried lemon thrown into warm sugar water, making even the sourest mood bubble with sweetness.
Even though Lin Qinhe just happened to come here and picked him up.
The gorgeous evening twilight dyed the red roof of the villa into deep red. Tao Xi followed Lin Qinhe excitedly all the way to the Lin family's car. He recognized the driver as Chen Ting at a glance. He leaned on the back of the driver's seat, tilted his head and smiled at Chen Ting and shouted:
"Good evening, Uncle Chen!"
When he is in a bad mood, he looks like everyone deserves a beating, but when he is in a good mood, he is friendly and affable to everyone he meets.
Chen Ting was stunned for a moment, and his eyes were dazzled by this "sweet" smile. He smiled politely and said, "Hello, we meet again."
But he was a little surprised in his heart. The last time he took Tao Xi to the hospital, he saw a pale and handsome boy with gloomy eyes. He kept his head down and didn't say a word all the way. How could he be so... brilliant today?
Lin Qinhe glanced at Chen Ting and said in a cold voice: "Why didn't you call for help just now?"
Tao Xi looked at Lin Qinhe in shock and asked subconsciously, "Who are you calling?"
Lin Qinhe turned her head and glanced at him, her long, slightly drooping eyelashes were stained with the twilight outside the window, and her amber pupils became a little darker.
Tao Xi thought about it and thought that what Lin Qinhe should have said was that he saw him in the living room of the Qiao family just now but did not call him. But that was because he was so happy at the time that he was just staring at people in a daze.
Unexpectedly, Lin Qinhe would care about this kind of etiquette. Tao Xi moved closer to Lin Qinhe, turned his head to look at Lin Qinhe, and asked, "How about I make up one for you?"
Lin Qinhe ignored him and just gave him a proud and cold profile.
Tao Xi pulled Lin Qinhe's sleeve, and Lin Qinhe looked at him and raised his eyebrows.
Tao Xi curved her eyes, her fine upper and lower eyelashes interlaced, as if she was shouting "Good evening, Uncle Chen", and whispered:
"Good evening, Brother Qinhe."
This was his little thought, and it sounded more intimate than Yang Duole calling him Brother Qinhe.
Lin Qinhe looked into Tao Xi's eyes, his gleam slightly. He quickly turned his head to look out the window and hummed indifferently.
Tao Xi was somewhat disappointed with Lin Qinhe's reaction. His eyes unconsciously fell on Lin Qinhe's protruding Adam's apple and saw it rolling up and down.
Although Lin Qinhe had a cold expression on his face, he was still excited in his heart. He began to pester Lin Qinhe to tell him about his painting lessons in the afternoon, how he found a master by growing vegetables, how great Qiao Henian was and how he was far behind him. Lin Qinhe remained silent most of the time, and only responded occasionally.
But Tao Xi still enjoys it, chattering about interesting things that happened at school like a primary school student who comes home from school.
When he finally stopped, Lin Qinhe looked at him and asked, "Have you finished your report?"
Tao Xi was stunned. Seeing Lin Qinhe's mouth slightly raised and a bright smile in his eyes, he immediately realized that he was being laughed at. He tried to light two flames in his eyes, stared at Lin Qinhe and said, "I won't talk anymore."
Lin Qinhe ignored the unintimidating anger in Tao Xi's eyes, unscrewed a bottle of mineral water and handed it to him, saying lightly:
"If you haven't finished, tell me after dinner."
Tao Xi took the water and drank a few sips in a daze, his mind was stuck: "What do you mean by eating?"
The car just stopped at that moment. He looked out of the window and suddenly realized that he was not taken to Wenhua No. 1 Middle School at all, but to an underground parking lot somewhere unknown.
Tao Xi asked Lin Qinhe in confusion: "Where is this?"
Lin Qinhe took the bottle from him, put the lid on it, and said, "You invited me to dinner last time but I couldn't come. I said I would treat you next time." After that, he opened the car door and got out.
Tao Xi was a little absent-minded. He recalled again the Sunday night he spent in the hospital. It was like a glass of wine mixed with all the unspeakable emotions, sour, bitter, and a very light sweetness, like a little sweetness after the bitterness, which was hard to describe.
He didn't expect that what Lin Qinhe said on the phone was true, and that he really wanted to treat him to a meal.
The door beside him was opened, and Lin Qinhe stood outside the car, slightly bent down and asked him, "Don't you want to eat?"
Tao Xi came back to his senses, jumped out of the car and shook his head, "Of course I want to eat."
Seeing that Chen Ting was still in the car, he asked, "Won't Uncle Chen eat with us?"
Chen Ting was stunned, and when he noticed Lin Qinhe's gaze towards him, he quickly said politely, "No, no, I'll go home and eat."
He has been working as a driver for the Lin family for so many years, so he has some insight.
Tao Xi followed Lin Qinhe out of the parking lot and found that this was a large crab restaurant. The independent courtyard with green walls and bamboo shadows was quiet and peaceful.
It looks expensive at first glance.
Tao Xi followed behind Lin Qinhe, hesitated for a while and said, "Actually, the restaurant I planned to treat you to last time cost less than 100 per person."
He found that every time he wanted to give something to Lin Qinhe, Lin Qinhe would give back more in the end.
He didn't know at that time that Lin Qinhe had done much more for him.
Lin Qinhe handed a card of unknown substance to the waiter who came to lead the way and asked, "So?"
Tao Xi whispered: "If you feel you've lost out, it's not too late to regret it now."
Lin Qinhe took Tao Xi to the private room and asked, "Now that we have lost money, how are you going to make it up?"
Tao Xi thought for a while and joked, "I can sell my art and a few paintings to the boss to pay for the food. If it's not enough, I can only sell my body."
Lin Qinhe raised the corner of his mouth and smiled, and whispered nonchalantly: "Then you might as well sell it to me."
Tao Xi was stunned, not knowing whether Lin Qinhe was talking about selling paintings or selling himself. He felt his heartbeat suddenly become irregular, so he quickly shut his mouth and stopped joking.
He followed the waiter in silence all the way to a quiet private room. There were candles burning in the candlestick in the corner and a small bridge and flowing water outside the bamboo window. It was Tao Xi's first time to eat in such a place and he was so nervous that his hands and feet were a little unsteady.
After sitting down, Lin Qinhe handed him the menu and said, "Order whatever you want to eat."
Tao Xi nodded nervously and opened the menu. Before she could even look at the pictures or names of the dishes, she was scared to death by the prices at the back.
Even if I sell my body, it still can’t pay for the meal!
Lin Qinhe's eyes fell on his face, and he saw through his thoughts: "Don't worry, I won't let you sell yourself."
Tao Xi lowered her head somewhat embarrassedly, pushed the menu towards Lin Qinhe, and said, "I don't know how to order, you order it."
He felt it difficult to decide which dish to order, and kept reciting "The rich live in luxury" in his mind.
Lin Qinhe didn't say anything, but directly told the waiter a list of dishes, obviously he was very familiar with this place.
October is a good time to eat crabs. Tao Xi has never eaten them before, but that didn't stop him from craving for them for a long time.
However, when the crabs were served, he was dumbfounded again.
Tao Xi looked up at Lin Qinhe, blinked, and said frankly and innocently: "I don't know how to do it."
The waiter at the side was about to come over to provide crab peeling service, but Lin Qinhe glanced at him indifferently and then stepped back in a very unfriendly manner.
Tao Xi saw Lin Qinhe wash his hands and open a complete set of crab peeling tools beside him, including skewers, tweezers, a small hammer... He looked very professional. He used his white and slender fingers to hold the tools to cut off the crab legs one by one, crack open the crab shell, slowly remove unwanted parts such as the crab stomach and crab heart, and then use a long-handled spoon to scrape off the most essential crab roe in the crab.
Tao Xi first stared at the movements of Lin Qinhe's hands intently, and felt that his hands were worthy of playing the piano as he could peel crabs so gracefully.
But then his attention was attracted by the shiny crab roe on the metal spoon, and he couldn't help swallowing his saliva.
Tao Xi moved her gaze from the crab roe to Lin Qinhe's face, her eyelashes fluttered up and down, she exclaimed, and complimented, "You are so amazing!"
His eyes were shining, and there was an undisguised "I want to eat" in his eyes.
Lin Qinhe was not impressed by the compliment, so he passed the long-handled spoon filled with crab roe to the other side, placed the spoon directly in front of Tao Xi, and said, "Try it."
At that moment, Tao Xi wanted to eat the crab roe directly with the spoon handed to him by Lin Qinhe, but he was afraid that Lin Qinhe would mind. In the end, he reached out and took the spoon from Lin Qinhe, said "thank you" with a smile, and then put the crab roe into his mouth.
Lin Qinhe withdrew his hand and curled up the fingers on the table.
Tao Xi tasted the flavor carefully on the tip of her tongue before swallowing it. She squinted her eyes in satisfaction and exclaimed, "It's delicious!"
Then I saw Lin Qinhe start peeling the second crab.
Tao Xi then learned how to peel crabs from Lin Qinhe's example. Halfway through, Lin Qinhe had already put the scraped crab roe on a plate and handed it to him. Then he started to pick the meat from the crab legs. He didn't eat any of it himself from beginning to end.
He was stunned for a moment and asked, "Don't you want to eat?"
Lin Qinhe said calmly: "I'm allergic to crabs."
Why invite him here to eat crabs if he is allergic?
Tao Xi lowered his eyes and ate the crab paste Lin Qinhe had prepared for him. His heart in his chest was beating more and more restlessly.
The feeling is hard to describe. The Waking of Insects has arrived ambiguously, and love has already taken root. However, there is a problem that is like a seed buried for a winter and never dares to break out of the ground.
Maybe we can give it a try.
After Tao Xi talked about a few things about school, she naturally talked about another thing: "A few days ago, a girl from another class asked me to send you a love letter. I helped you reject it. You won't blame me, right?"
Lin Qinhe paused while peeling the crab and said indifferently, "Don't blame you. I wouldn't have accepted it anyway."
Tao Xi held the chopsticks tightly, her palms sweating a little, and she said the next sentence calmly: "I thought so too, and then she asked me if I had someone I liked, and I said I probably didn't, Lin Qinhe didn't look like he had a crush on anyone."
He lowered his head and ate a little of the crab leg meat that Lin Qinhe had picked for him. The sweet taste spread on his tongue.
Lin Qinhe was silent for a while, and suddenly whispered: "Not necessarily."
At that moment, Tao Xi heard a sound of machinery turning gently in his head, like the hands of a clock pointing to a new node, but he didn't know what the next second would mean.
He bit the tip of his tongue, the slight pain covering up the sweetness of the crab legs, and asked casually, "What does 'not necessarily' mean? You don't really have someone you like, do you?"
Then he smiled and asked like Bi Chengfei, gossipingly, "Could it be a girl from our class?"
He regretted it as soon as he asked the question. His heart felt like it was being pinched by a hand, neither too lightly nor too heavily, neither up nor down, neither left nor right.
Even the movement of Lin Qinhe's hands peeling the crab frightened him, so he had to lower his head to eat.
Lin Qinhe stopped what he was doing again, raised his eyelids and glanced at Tao Xi who was poking the crab legs with chopsticks, and said, "That's not what I meant."
What does that mean?
Tao Xi said "Oh" and stopped poking with chopsticks. He picked up a crab leg, dipped it in the vinegar dish and put it into his mouth. The sour taste filled his entire mouth and his eyes were blurred with sourness.
It was just a false alarm, but my chest still ached.
The atmosphere was subtly quiet for a few seconds, with only the sound of the crab shell being pried open, revealing its softest part under the light.
Tao Xi was about to talk about something else to change the subject, but suddenly Lin Qinhe asked without any context, "What about you?"
His heart tightened, and for some reason he instantly understood what Lin Qinhe was asking. He smiled and said, "Didn't you say that we shouldn't fall in love too early? Grandpa Qiao also said the same thing to me today, so of course I don't have any thoughts about it."
Lin Qinhe placed the crab meat on a plate and said calmly, "So you had an idea?"
Tao Xi was silent for a few seconds, and then responded with Lin Qinhe's original words: "That's not what I meant."
Since you don't tell me, I won't tell you either.
He felt a little aggrieved.
Lin Qinhe put down the crab peeling tool in his hand, looked at Tao Xi opposite with a slightly gloomy look, and said in a low voice: "Huang Qing?"
Tao Xi was startled, staring at Lin Qinhe blankly with wide eyes, her eyelashes trembling.
However, his expression seemed to make the darkness in Lin Qinhe's eyes even darker, and he didn't even hand him the peeled crab legs.
Tao Xi suddenly reacted, shook his head like a rattle, and said in disbelief: "How is it possible?! Huang Qing only likes to study, okay?"
Lin Qinhe's face still looked bad, and his voice became deeper: "You seem to know her very well."
Tao Xi narrowed her eyes, remembering Lin Qinhe's usual hostility towards Huang Qing, and couldn't help but said, "Lin Qinhe, are you a little nervous because the midterm exam is coming up? In fact, you don't need to be nervous. You will definitely do better than Huang Qing and will definitely take first place. I believe in you!"
However, his encouragement seemed to be of no use. Lin Qinhe still did not give him the plate of crab legs. He even pulled up the corners of his mouth and smiled, saying coldly: "Aren't you the one who should be nervous?"
The tone was extremely sarcastic.
Tao Xi was discouraged, his shoulders shrunk, and he complained unhappily: "Why did you talk about the midterm exam while we were having dinner? I was so nervous that I didn't even have the mood to eat crabs."
It's just that the bad guys are the first to complain.
Lin Qinhe frowned even more deeply, picked up the plate of crab legs, and pressed it in front of Tao Xi with a little force, and ordered without question: "You must finish it."
The subtle atmosphere disappeared in an instant.
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