Storm Brewing
"You're the crazy one! What's wrong with you?" Xie Ci's temper has improved a lot recently because of Tong Zhenzhen's training, but sometimes he would still get so angry that he would lose his temper and even subconsciously use the vulgar internet slang that he usually despised.
Tong Zhenzhen got angry when she thought of his elementary school student behavior. She took out the booklet from her pocket and slapped it on his strong chest muscles:
"You're not a psychopath, you're a lunatic! You write down curses in a notebook behind my back. If you hate me, why did you give me a handkerchief?!"
The impact on his chest stunned him, as if a bucket of cold water was poured over his head. His anger disappeared and he lowered his head in a daze. When he saw the booklet that had been missing for a long time, his eyes suddenly widened. He discovered that it was missing when he was packing his luggage, but he just thought that he had accidentally lost it somewhere. Unexpectedly, it fell into Tong Zhenzhen's hands!
Tong Zhenzhen saw him standing there in a daze for a long time without saying anything, his eyes wide open, and she didn't know if he was imitating a goldfish and pretending to be dead. She felt more and more that this child was really sick. Under her caring gaze for disabled children, Xie Ci slowly raised his hand to take the book of dark history, and then drew the sword from its sheath at lightning speed, making full use of the sword skills he had practiced for many years to cut it into pieces.
"You, you are actually playing rogue!" Tong Zhenzhen didn't even have time to reach out to grab it. She could only stare at him in amazement as he casually clapped his hands. The pieces of paper scatter like fallen leaves all over the ground and blown away by the wind. He pretended nothing happened, crossed his arms and pretended to be calm.
"Who said I hate you! I——"
Xie Ci seemed to want to say something, but he was so confused at the moment that he didn't even know how to explain his feelings about Tong Zhen. A few vague words popped up in his mind, but he was too hot to utter them out loud. He could only keep them in his heart and let the burning temperature spread to his cheeks.
Tong Zhenzhen pointed at the piece of paper that was blown away by the wind:
"...Then I hate you, okay? You litter everywhere, you have no manners!"
"There is no law in Yuandu prohibiting littering." Xie Ci picked up Tong Zhenzhen, who was as angry as a puffer fish, with one hand and led her back with a half-coaxing and half-persuasion.
He quickened his pace in a state of inexplicable annoyance. Somehow, he thought of what Lin Shizhu said that day. Why did he take such good care of Tong Zhenzhen? Could it be true...
The answer in his heart became clearer and clearer, but he shook his head as if to escape, muttering to himself, "Damn it, I shouldn't have gone out today if I had known."
Tong Zhenzhen had very sharp ears, so she naturally missed the complaint. She said sarcastically under Xie Ci's hand:
"If I had known that my brother was coming, I would not have come. Let my brother's ancestors have a rest!"
Who would use his own ancestors to insult others? He is definitely sick.
The innocent little thoughts were almost written on her face. Xie Ci glanced at her:
"Don't you hate me? Why do you care about my ancestors?"
Tong Zhenzhen: ...Do you want to eat fried dough cakes?
"Alright, let's stop arguing," Xie Ci was amused by her wrinkled face, and put her down, motioning her to leave on her own. "I also think this is an insult to our ancestors, but my old man insisted that I say this, and I have no choice."
Tong Zhenzhen took the snack handed over by Xie Ci, stuffed it into her mouth and chewed it without hesitation. She thought about who this old man was, and it took her a long time to realize that he was talking about his biological father - General Xie Ming of Linyuan who died in the battle with Gulou.
After all, he was the other party's deceased blood relative, so Tong Zhenzhen put away her unruly look just now and spoke cautiously:
"Your father is...quite humorous?"
"Come on, only my mother can stand his bad temper," Xie Ci laughed. It was rare for them to talk about this, so he became talkative for a while, and his eyebrows and eyes unconsciously softened a lot. "I have the same temper as him. There are all desperate people on the battlefield, so naturally they have no clean mouths, and they curse each other more dirty than the other. The old man told me that it is not a hero to fuck other people's ancestors. A real man only curses his own ancestors!"
"Pfft - this sounds so naive!" Tong Zhenzhen couldn't help laughing out loud, and raised her eyes to look at Xie Ci. He seemed to have returned to the time when he was laughing and playing with his parents, with a nostalgic smile on the corner of his mouth:
"After that, I followed his lead and changed my words. My mother heard it and was so angry that she picked up a mace and chased my father around the yard to beat him. At that time, Xiao Yuan and I were sitting on the threshold of the main hall and watching. His wailing and begging for mercy scared away the magpies on the roof."
Tong Zhenzhen watched him immersed in those happy memories, lowering her eyes to hide the envy in her eyes:
"Your parents must have a very good relationship."
Xie Ci nodded, and seeing that Tong Zhenzhen had finished eating the biscuit, he handed her the red bean soup in the food box:
"My father always looks unruly, but he joined the court as a military officer in order to quell the chaos and let mother and us live in peace. What a pity..."
Xie Ci's voice trailed off, but unfortunately in the end, neither of them would live to see that day.
Tong Zhenzhen felt that Xie Ci was like a depressed large dog, with his tail and head hanging down, looking extremely pitiful. For some reason, she took out the fruit candy she always kept in her arms, peeled it and handed it to him:
"Yes, I'll give you some candy."
Xie Ci was also somewhat accustomed to Tong Zhenzhen's unfettered feeding. He bit down the candy in one bite, and the sweet fragrance of peach spread between his lips and tongue. Even the bitterness in his heart faded a lot. He raised his hand and touched Tong Zhenzhen's furry head:
"Well, I'm a soldier on the battlefield, so I won't cry about separation. But you, this general, I'm really curious about what kind of family can raise a weirdo like you."
He was half joking and didn't expect anyone to really tell him, but he actually had some expectation in his heart that he wanted to understand her better.
Unexpectedly, Tong Zhenzhen paused, choking on the red bean soup that she had just swallowed and started coughing. She subconsciously folded her hands over her chest and seemed to be shaking. Xie Ci was a little confused and was about to go forward to help her calm down when he saw Tong Zhenzhen suddenly pointing to the market not far ahead:
"Xie Ci, look! Your sister is shopping with the little yellow-haired boy!"
"What?!"
Xie Ci turned around suddenly, thinking she was talking nonsense, but who would have thought that he actually saw Xie Yuan, who had changed into casual clothes, strolling in the market in front, but the person following her was not a yellow-haired guy, but a curly-haired guy.
If not Ma Chengyun, who else could it be? !
Tong Zhenzhen secretly breathed a sigh of relief and forced herself to stand up straight, thankful that Ma Chengyun's sudden appearance allowed her to fool around. She trotted after Xie Ci while sending a message to Ma Chengyun:
Xiao Ma, thank you, take care, even if you are disabled, you must live a decent life (clasp hands)
Ma Chengyun, who was chatting with Xie Yuan, opened the private message and his face was full of question marks. No, why is this sister going crazy again?
"What's wrong?" Xie Yuan asked casually when he saw that he looked strange.
Ma Chengyun quickly closed the private message and said with an apologetic smile:
"Nothing, nothing, just a little business matter. Oh, and here's this for you. Eating some sweets can help relieve some of the stress from work."
He exchanged Oreo cheesecake from the mall. This was a dessert that Tong Zhenzhen, a foodie, praised after trying it. He also bribed Tong Zhenzhen with a buy one get one free offer. He learned from her that the Xie brothers and sisters all liked sweets. Xie Yuan seemed to be particularly interested in the taste of novelty. As the saying goes, you have to capture a person's stomach first. He had planned it all out. Next time he would give her the Hell Spicy Turkey Noodles, and the next time...
Ma Chengyun held her cheek with one hand shyly, pink bubbles kept popping up in her mind because of the fantasy. She didn't even notice that her palm touched Xie Yuan's fingers when she handed it over.
Xie Yuan was stunned, he lowered his head and quickly glanced at the two people's folded hands, then quickly looked away. Seeing that the guy was laughing for something and didn't seem to pay attention to this side, he simply didn't take his hand away with a red face.
"Don't stop me! I'm going to kill that curly-haired guy!!"
Xie Ci was pinned down by Tong Zhenzhen behind a tree a few feet away from the two of them. He drew his sword and wanted to rush forward to fight Ma Chengyun:
"Look at what that guy is doing with his hands! How shameless of him to do that in broad daylight!"
"Hey, General, calm down, calm down!" Tong Zhenzhen put her arms around his waist with all her strength and took the opportunity to take advantage of him. "Isn't it just someone passing something to you? Besides, it's not broad daylight now, it's almost dark!"
“Can we do that kind of thing after dark?!” Xie Ci growled through gritted teeth.
Tong Zhenzhen frowned and scolded:
"What are you talking about at such a young age? Ma Chengyun is such a money-grubber. Does he know how to write the word love? There is no way they can be together!"
Seeing that the curly-haired paw was still on his sister's hand, Xie Ci became more and more angry. Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of a familiar figure from the corner of his eye. He immediately stopped struggling and turned Tong Zhenzhen's face in that direction:
"You're still blaming me. Didn't you also think there was no chance between them at the beginning? They've already hugged each other!"
Tong Zhenzhen was completely confused by what he said. She looked in the direction he pointed and saw Xue Yide hugging Qu Fei and kissing and hugging him. Her eyes widened immediately and she rushed out to hit him, but was grabbed by the collar and pulled back by Xie Ci.
"Calm down, they're already in a relationship, isn't it normal to do this?" Xie Ci looked at her with a gloating look on his face. Tong Zhenzhen was pierced all over by the boomerang, and her back teeth were almost broken:
"How can it be the same? My mom found me a cheap dad, so I have to check him out anyway!"
The two of them argued back and forth, until the sky was dark and the setting sun completely disappeared in the sky. When dusk came, they were shocked to realize that the two pairs of lovers had disappeared long ago.
"What do you mean?" Tong Zhenzhen drank the last mouthful of red bean soup. She felt like her throat was about to smoke from the noise.
Xie Ci snorted, patted her on the back, and walked forward:
"What else can I say? Let's go home! I'll take you back first."
Tong Zhenzhen originally wanted to go shopping at the night market, but Xie Ci forcibly sent her to the inn where she was staying, saying, "You will definitely watch videos when you go back, and if you go back later, you will stay up all night." He told her to go to bed early and get up early, and then said goodbye and left.
"What an old woman..." Tong Zhenzhen complained quietly after he walked away. She turned around and was about to go in, but she saw Chen Miao also came back at this time, so she quickly stepped forward to greet him:
"Hey Sister Miao, how was the date? Did...what happened? Why are you crying?"
Although Chen Miao tried her best to hide it, Tong Zhenzhen still keenly noticed the redness in her eyes. She quickly grabbed her shoulders and looked her up and down. After confirming that she was not injured, she breathed a sigh of relief. Then she remembered something and said angrily:
"Did that fellow Lin Shizhu bully you? Well, I was so busy defending Xue Yide that I forgot about him. I'll get someone to kill him!"
"No, no, really, you misunderstood!" Chen Miao waved her hands repeatedly, feeling a little amused.
Tong Zhenzhen knew that if Chen Miaoruo was wronged, she would speak out and would not hide anything. Since she said so, it must be okay. So she nodded and waited for her to speak.
"Today...Lin Shizhu took me to meet his parents."
"Ah?! Meeting the parents so soon?" Tong Zhenzhen couldn't help but exclaimed, and quickly covered her mouth. She imagined many domestic melodramatic ethical dramas in which the in-laws made things difficult for the daughter-in-law who had not yet married. Chen Miao and Tong Zhenzhen had been together for so many years, how could she not see what she was thinking? She raised her hand and tapped her head lightly:
"What are you talking about? No! His parents are very nice people. If they were brought into modern times, they would be doctors in a top-tier hospital and from a scholarly family. Besides, we are not pretending to be priests now. They are very respectful to me. But that idiot Lin Shizhu actually said that he must have me. If I am willing, we can get married. If not, he will stay with me. Even if I leave in the future, he will stay with me forever. He did it in front of his parents!"
Tong Zhenzhen feels dramatic just thinking about that scene, a fool who is blinded by love, a pair of traditional parents watching their foolish son go crazy, and poor Chen Miao with trembling pupils.
"Well, this also shows that Lin Shizhu is a man of virtue!" Tong Zhenzhen patted her shoulder comfortingly, and sat with her on the steps in front of the inn. The ground was cold in winter, and Tong Zhenzhen's butt was frozen. However, since it was related to her best friend's love troubles, she had to endure it even if her butt was frozen into an ice cube.
"But the problem is, we agreed at the beginning that we would only go for sex, and this is totally beyond my expectations," Chen Miao sighed, her long eyelashes trembling slightly, covering the sadness in her eyes like a small fan. "At first he was like that, but slowly, I could clearly feel that he was serious. After being the King of the Sea for so many years, I am still confident that I can tell whether a man is sincere to you or not."
The moonlight flowed on the clothes of the two people like water. The long voice of the night watchman came from the distance. As Chen Miao spoke, Tong Zhenzhen listened quietly, having long forgotten Xie Ci's advice to go to bed early and get up early.
"I've been living a carefree life for so many years, and all my exes kept saying how much they loved me, but some of them cheated on me, some of them got back together again, and they disappeared without a trace within three days after asking me to get back together. So when I start dating later, I just tell them in advance that it's just for fun and there's no emotional connection. We can break up when we get tired of each other. It's better for both sides." Chen Miao paused, clasped her hands tightly on her knees, and lowered her head a little.
"But Lin Shizhu is the most persistent person I have ever seen. At the beginning, I only wanted his face and never thought about being serious. But we have been here for almost a year. During this period, he pursued me as many times as I rejected him. I even had some..."
Chen Miao didn't say the second half of her sentence. Love was something that Tong Zhenzhen didn't know much about. She tried to speak:
"Then why don't you try to have a real date?"
"I can't, Zhenzhen," Chen Miao raised her head slowly, her beautiful eyes rippling like a pond filled with sadness, "If both parties are just playing around, no one will get hurt, but if he really loves me, my response is hurting him. We will all leave this world one day, and then, what should he do?"
This question hit Tong Zhenzhen's heart hard. The problem she had been avoiding was now in front of her. Tong Zhenzhen understood that her friend was facing a choice that only she could make a judgment on, so she leaned over and hugged her:
"It doesn't matter. World peace is not something that can be achieved in a short time. You can think about it slowly. I think that seizing the present moment is the most important thing. No matter what choice you make, I, Sister Li, and Mother Fei will all stand by you and be the cobblers of your love!"
Chen Miao was amused by her. Tong Zhenzhen always found a way to liven up the atmosphere. She felt much better and gently hugged her back.
Yes, they would accompany her no matter what.
At the same time, a group chat
[Group owner-Crispy Shark System]:
Hahahahahaha——I finally uploaded the proposal report! I finally finished the topic selection and proposal report. I have three months to finish the first draft! I don’t want to be a poor cow and horse anymore. I want to give up! Let’s go!
【Beauty System No. 5】:
? The group leader finally went crazy
【Medical System No. 10】:
But it is true. The previous DDL deadline was too tight, and the group owner is the first person in charge. Now I am free and can let myself go.
【Programming system number one】:
Something terrible has happened, Team Leader! Just now, the instructor called me and said that there is a problem with our group's data, and asked you to fix the system bug, otherwise the hosts will not be able to use the system functions! @【Group Master-Crispy Shark System】
【Programming system number one】:
@【Group Master-Crispy Shark System】
【Programming system number one】:
? What's going on? He used to reply within seconds.
【Mall System No. 1】:
Uh, if you look at the previous post, the team leader started to play, so he probably disconnected from the Internet and went out to have fun...
【Programming system number one】:
How can I do that? He is the only one who has the authority to be a cow or a horse, no, to be the editor!
【Language System No. 3】:
Well, the team leader has done it, so let’s do it too (spreading hands)
【Chemical System No. 4】:
This makes sense.
【Programming system number one】:
That's right, now that things have come to this, let's put it aside and hope nothing goes wrong.
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